Introduction

The Introduction opens with a contextual discussion of Scudéry’s life and works, before giving a brief overview of science and philosophy in Scudéry’s Paris and an introduction to her Conversations. It then examines each of the translated texts in turn: ‘On Uncertainty’; ‘The Story of Two Chameleons’; Manuscripts; ‘The Story of Prince Ariamène’, which includes a fictional Democritus, and ‘On Butterflies’. Stressing the interconnection between these works, the Introduction demonstrates the centrality of dialectic to Scudéry’s discussions of natural philosophy. These texts engage with questions of atomism; of uncertainty, faith and divine providence; of observation and its limits; of animals and the Cartesian animal machine; of fidelity and friendship. They do so using a variety of genres, from historical fiction to poetic madrigals, from natural historical observations to playful verse exchanged in manuscript. The Introduction explains how Scudéry places exchange, dialogue and friendship at the heart of her approach to enquiry, as she explores philosophy as a social and pleasurable practice, and promotes a form of ‘epistemic mobility’ that embraces plural ways of knowing.