Alexis Tétreault

Over the course of the past 20 years, new approaches to the materialistic aspects of Émilie du Châtelet’s writings have emerged. While the works of Whitehead, Le Ru, and Kovács have focused, respectively, on how her thoughts on happiness are embodied in her reflections on gender norms and material conditions, on the similarities between her work and that of La Mettrie, and on her conception of human liberty, this article investigates the notion of “sentir son existence” (to feel one’s own existence) and how it informs her anthropological philosophy, especially her understanding of the notion of illusion. Through this process, I show that such an anthropological approach to the “sentiment d’existence” is not unique to her and seems common among other materialist philosophers, such as Helvetius and the Baron d’Holbach.