CALL FOR PAPERS

Topic: Elective Affinities: The Chemistries of Natural and Social Relations

Submission deadline:  February 29, 2025

Description:

While there has been much recent work on the philosophy of science in Kant and the post-Kantian traditions, most of that work has been focused on mechanical systems and organisms and on mechanistic and teleological explanation. What still deserves more scholarly attention in this tradition is the influence of the burgeoning field of chemistry and its novel conceptual apparatus specifically the idea of elective affinities: the tendency of elements to pair more readily with specific other elements. At the time, this concept was often treated as an intermediary notion between mechanical and a teleological  explanations, as for instance in Schelling’s Ideas for a Philosophy of Nature or in the “Real Measure” and “Chemism” chapters in Hegel’s Science of Logic. Moreover, they also provided the adventurous thinkers of the time with models for understanding the “ontology” of  interpersonal relations. This occurs most famously in Goethe’s Elective Affinities, but it is also taken up by Hegel in his treatment of Chemism in the Science of Logic. In this issue, we propose to take these uses of the concepts of chemistry seriously and ask: What new concepts and explanatory paradigms emerged in the field of chemistry and how did they impact Kantian and post-Kantian thought? How are these extensions of the concepts of chemistry operative in German Idealism and Romanticism? What unique explanatory needs are met by chemistry? What can we learn from the 'chemical analysis' of interpersonal and social relations that we find in the work of Goethe, Hegel, and others?

We invite papers on the roles of elective affinities and chemistry more broadly in Kant and post-Kantian philosophical and literary thinking. We welcome papers on lesser-known figures of the time on this topic. Submitted papers may be up to 12,000-words long (including footnotes, bibliography, and references), preceded by a short (maximum 200-word) abstract, and prepared for an anonymous peer review process. For style guidelines please consult the journal web page.