Abstract
The following article deals with the foundational programme of mechanics developed by Emilie du Châtelet in her work Institutions (1742) regarding to the vis viva controversy, a dispute about the question whether the Cartesian quantity mv or the Leibnizian quantity mv2 was the true measure of force. From a modern point of view, the quarrel seems easy to explain. The Cartesian quantity of motion refers to what is now called momentum, the Leibnizian quantity of force to the kinetic energy of a moving body. Both quantities are conserved. In fact, it was not that simple. Far from being a “dispute de mots”, the vis viva controversy involved the confrontation with specific ontological presuppositions underlying the physico-philosophical theories of that time. In this context Du Châtelet proposed a reformation of metaphysics as science offering a framework for the integration of Leibniz’s vis viva theory into Newtonian mechanics.
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