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Science in the Salon: Atoms and Animals in Madeleine de Scudéry’s 'Conversations' (1680–92)
Helena Taylor
2026
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Madeleine de Scudéry (1607–1701) was a celebrated seventeenth-century novelist and essayist, yet her engagement with natural philosophy and the sciences has been largely overlooked. This volume presents the first English translation of 'The Story of Two Chameleons' (1688) and situates it within Scudéry’s broader scientific and philosophical writing. Beyond this seminal text, the book explores her reflections on atomism, natural history, and epistemology, revealing her critical engagement with cutting-edge theories of her time, including a challenge to the Cartesian ‘animal-machine’ hypothesis. By translating and analyzing key sections from her multi-volume Conversations (1680–1692), including ‘On Uncertainty’, ‘The Story of Prince Ariamène’, which features Democritus, and ‘On Butterflies’, alongside selected manuscript material, this volume demonstrates how Scudéry’s interdisciplinary approach defied rigid intellectual boundaries, activating what Anne-Lise Rey terms ‘epistemic mobility.’ Her work offers a vital perspective on women’s contributions to the history of science and philosophy, and illuminates the ways in which marginalized voices engaged with and shaped knowledge production. With a critical introduction and extensive commentary, this open access edition makes Scudéry’s work widely available to scholars and students in early modern studies, French literature, philosophy, animal studies, and the environmental humanities. It is a timely contribution to ongoing efforts to recover women’s intellectual history and reassess the intersections of literature, science, and philosophy in early modern Europe.
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Keywords
- animal studies
- early modern science
- Epistemology and Atomism
- Madeleine de Scudéry
- Seventeenth-Century Literature
- thema EDItEUR::D Biography, Literature and Literary studies::DS Literature: history and criticism
- thema EDItEUR::D Biography, Literature and Literary studies::DS Literature: history and criticism::DSB Literary studies: general
- thema EDItEUR::D Biography, Literature and Literary studies::DS Literature: history and criticism::DSK Literary studies: fiction, novelists and prose writers
- thema EDItEUR::J Society and Social Sciences::JB Society and culture: general::JBC Cultural and media studies::JBCC Cultural studies::JBCC9 History of ideas
- thema EDItEUR::J Society and Social Sciences::JB Society and culture: general::JBS Social groups, communities and identities::JBSF Gender studies, gender groups::JBSF1 Gender studies: women and girls
- thema EDItEUR::P Mathematics and Science::PD Science: general issues::PDX History of science
- thema EDItEUR::Q Philosophy and Religion::QD Philosophy::QDH Philosophical traditions and schools of thought::QDHR Western philosophy from c 1800
- Women in Philosophy
Links
DOI: 10.11647/OBP.0465Editions