Abstract In 1705, Catholic cleric Pierre Le Lorrain, abbé de Vallemont, published Curiositez de la nature et l’art de Vegetation , which described experimental methods for enhancing botanical growth. As a Cartesian, Vallemont had developed theories about the natural processes of plants through a mechanical, corpuscular natural philosophy. Yet, Vallemont had also hoped to reconcile these observations about plants with what he described as “occult physics” in these materialist terms. To do this, Vallemont relied on transmutational alchemy and alchemical interpretations of botanical observations. In light of recent scholarship, it has become increasingly apparent that although alchemy “declined” during the early eighteenth century, many natural philosophers were still heavily involved in transmutational experimentation throughout that century. This paper contributes to these studies by arguing that Vallemont employed earlier traditions of transmutational alchemy in combination with Cartesian mechanical philosophy and corpuscularianism to explain the vegetative processes of plants.

Book Review: Steffen Ducheyne, Physics in Minerva’s Academy: Early to Mid-Eighteenth-Century Appropriations of Isaac Newton’s Natural Philosophy at the University of Leiden and in the Dutch Republic at Large, 1687–c.1750, Cynthia Kravitz, Paradise is Now: Decrypting the Secret Cosmology in Isaac Newton’s Principia

Why is everyday life under capitalism socially experienced through predetermined quantums that are, at once, abstract and concrete, sensuous and algebraic, in flux and subject to strict mathematical determination? How does space come to appear as the objective container for human and extra-human activity? And why do machines, economic theorems, and maps seem to effectuate themselves on the world when individuals are unable to do so? Alred Sohn-Rethel, a fellow traveller of the Frankfurt School, presages these questions in his critique of epistemology, yet his uptake in critical theory and, more recently, radical geography, leaves the question of measure, and the prospects of its abolition, unresolved. I reconstruct Sohn-Rethel’s conception of spatio-temporality and, against the grain of Marxist geography’s own value theory, posit measure as the shape of capitalist space and the process by which capital relates to itself. Measure is the key to understanding how capital manifests itself in the production of space, how bodies of knowledge like natural science, mathematics, and philosophy come to share common dualisms, and how capital is a misrecognition of how life and social experience might be organized differently. In this, I pose a challenge to Sohn-Rethel’s uptake in spatial thought, elaborate on the encounter between critical theory and Marxist geography, and contribute to the project of a negative geography aimed squarely at material emplacement as abolition of capitalist society in its totality.

Abstract Initially trained as a classical historian and philologist, Georg S. Knabe (1920–2011) was among the first Russian-speaking scholars to engage intensively with the study of everyday life. Beyond Roman history, his research also encompassed countercultural movements, rock and punk music, and fashion trends. These diverse subjects were unified, however, by Knabe’s original theory of cultural memory, which brought together Aristotelian teleology, Romantic natural philosophy, Goethe’s morphology, the philosophy of life, Ernst Cassirer’s notion of the inner form of culture, and Roland Barthes’s semiology. Despite his openness to novelty and his strong pro-Western orientation, at the beginning of the twenty-first century Knabe grew increasingly critical of the shifting intellectual climate in the West and of new EU policies. He argued that under the ideology of multiculturalism and political correctness, Europe was severing its ties with the past—particularly with its Roman heritage. Although this rhetoric echoes that of many Russian and Western conservative thinkers and is not entirely original, what proves most illuminating are not Knabe’s sometimes biased conclusions, but the causes that led him to them. This article examines those causes by analyzing Knabe’s post-Soviet writings and contextualizing his arguments within contemporary conservative and communitarian thought. It argues that Knabe’s rightward shift was driven by three main factors: (1) the crisis within the Western community of classical scholars, (2) the recognition that his vision of the Russian intelligentsia’s mission—to promote the nation’s “return to Europe” through grassroots cultural renewal rather than through political decree—had become impossible, and (3) the incompatibility of new EU identity politics with his view of cultural memory and of communities as its primary bearers and subjects.

ABSTRACT Debates over the nature, status, and explanatory scope of various ethers were widespread among seventeenth- and eighteenth-century natural philosophers. This article argues that an important feature of Kant’s mature natural philosophy is its attempt to combine these issues with the Leibnizian problem of the relation between fundamental and derivative forces. On the one hand, Kant employs the framework of fundamental and derivative forces to structure the disparate phenomena that were at stake in the ether debates. On the other hand, the ether is central to his explanation of the relation between fundamental and derivative forces. After examining the relevant texts and surveying different interpretative options, the article argues that Kant favours an ether-based account of the relationship between fundamental and derivative forces. The account is fleshed out through the case of cohesive force, which I show to be an effect not of the pressure of the ether but of differences in its oscillatory motion.

Abstract During the early twentieth century, Ivy League legal scholars developed a positivist jurisprudential method known as legal realism. Concerned with the law’s relationship to social conditions, legal realism methodologically triumphed in the elite legal academy and brought to a close what one historian has described as the “decline of natural law” in American jurisprudence. Catholic legal scholars in the United States responded to this decline by invoking the natural law philosophy of Thomas Aquinas and his nineteenth-century neoscholastic disciples, arguing that legal realism irredeemably divorced law and morality. In so doing, these scholars effectively inaugurated what the author terms the neoscholastic legal revival , a decades-long period of debate between Catholic natural lawyers and their positivist contemporaries about natural law’s foundational relationship to the US legal tradition. To explain the history and significance of this debate, the author uncovers the origins the neoscholastic legal revival in particular features of nineteenth-century European Catholic intellectual culture that were transmitted to the United States through the Society of Jesus, the world’s largest Catholic religious order. The author especially examines the lives and legacies of two American Jesuits, William J. Kenealy and Francis E. Lucey, who helped to lead the neoscholastic legal revival and who illustrate how recovering the revival’s forgotten history can enrich scholars’ understanding of this important period in US legal history.

Introduction. Education is a key driver of social progress and sustainable development, with learner-centered approaches gaining increasing recognition. Jean-Jacques Rousseau’s natural education philosophy, as presented in Émile or On Education, advocates for experiential learning, autonomy, and moral development, principles that closely align with contemporary educational reforms. Vietnam’s Happy Schools initiative, launched to foster a positive and inclusive learning environment, shares many of Rousseau’s ideals. However, limited research has explored how his educational philosophy can be practically applied within Vietnam’s school system. This study examines the applicability of Rousseau’s principles to the Happy Schools initiative, aiming to provide insights into fostering holistic, student-centered education. Study participants and methods. This study employs a qualitative research design, analyzing primary and secondary sources related to Rousseau’s educational philosophy, contemporary interpretations of his work, and Vietnam’s Happy Schools initiative. Thematic analysis was used to identify key concepts in Rousseau’s writings and compare them with modern educational policies. The study systematically reviewed literature, including Rousseau’s original texts, scholarly interpretations, and Vietnamese education guidelines, to extract recurring themes related to experiential learning, moral education, and holistic development. KEYWORDS Results. The findings reveal that Rousseau’s philosophy emphasizes education as a transformative force that nurtures personal freedom, moral character, and balanced development. His principles advocate for student autonomy, experiential learning, and emotional well-being—values reflected in Vietnam’s Happy Schools framework. The study highlights the relevance of Rousseau’s dual educational objectives: cultivating free, responsible citizens and achieving a harmonious balance between intellectual, moral, and physical development. Moreover, Rousseau’s advocacy for learner centered methods, such as experiential learning and moral education through natural consequences, aligns with modern pedagogical approaches. However, challenges remain in implementing these ideas in Vietnam’s structured educational system, particularly regarding rigid curricula and high-stakes assessments. Conclusion. Rousseau’s natural education philosophy remains highly relevant in contemporary educational discourse and offers valuable insights for enhancing Vietnam’s Happy Schools initiative. While systemic challenges exist, integrating experiential and moral education can foster a more inclusive, student-centered learning environment. Future research should explore strategies for adapting Rousseau’s principles within standardized curricula and assess the long-term impact of Happy Schools on student development. The study contributes to global discussions on holistic education, reinforcing the enduring significance of Rousseau’s vision in shaping progressive educational reforms.

Abstract This article investigates the intersection between the medical condition of lovesickness and the social phenomenon of rape. While rape in medieval culture has been studied through the disciplinary lens of gender studies, theology, sociology, and legal theory, the influence of medical epistemology on these reprehensible acts of violence has been overlooked. The advent of the branch of knowledge known as medical humanities allows us to fill in this gap by looking into the clinical treatises that circulated widely in medieval Europe and served as curricula in medieval universities. This article argues that because intercourse with the beloved was recommended as therapy for lovesickness in the medical texts on the disease, such texts did more than inform physicians and natural philosophers about the causes, effects, and treatments for this dangerous condition, but helped normalize the hypersexuality of melancholic, lovesick men and, in so doing, provided hermeneutic tools for defending and justifying sexual aggressions. Under these circumstances, women’s bodies were perceived and treated as mere medicinal objects for healing men’s sickness and saving men’s lives.

This article argues that Coseriu’s theoretical linguistics present a philosophical problem that can be called “the problem of the extralinguistic” and that it can be dissolved by paying attention to how it arises and what uncritical conceptions it reveals insofar as it remains undetected. The expression “extralinguistic” or “extralinguistic reality” is common in Coseriu’s theoretical works on linguistics, where the problem is not perceived due to its philosophical nature, in my view. However, this does not prevent its effects from having a theoretical impact in his linguistics. Thus, this article argues that, by dissolving this problem, some uncritical conceptions that can create confusion within theoretical linguistics are resolved. In turn, this dissolution allows for arguing in a different way about how to abandon those conceptions through the approaches of hermeneutic phenomenology.

An Aristotelian natural philosophy, with its account of substantial form as the organizing and unifying principle of all substances, including living human beings, is essential to a coherent and theologically accurate formulation of the Catholic doctrine of transubstantiation. I demonstrate this fact by considering a recent proposal by Howard Robinson, which attempts to re-formulate the doctrine within a Cartesian or substance dualist framework. Robinson’s proposal cannot explain the presence of the sensible qualities of the bread and wine, nor the presence of Christ’s body, blood, soul, and divinity, as requird by the Council of Trent.

ABSTRACT John Wesley is well known among Methodists for his emphasis on heart religion and the felt sense of assurance or inward peace. However, Wesley’s wider publishing corpus was eclectic in content, and it reveals a mind steeped in the curiosities and scientific developments of the early-modern, North Atlantic world. This is reflected in his 1763 publication on natural philosophy, A Survey of the Wisdom of God in the Creation: Or, a Compendium of Natural Philosophy. This article argues that, given the broad impacts of climate change on planet earth and the de-stabilization of natural systems, Wesley’s Survey has lasting value for the modern church in an age of crisis—for its aesthetic sensibility toward the created order, and the moral response it encourages for contemporary Methodists to care for creation.

The Symposium, an exemplary dialogue disseminated throughout the centuries, contains a portrait of central aspects of Platonic thought and the polyphony presented in the theater of characters who present themselves as bearers of worldviews, or worldviews that confront each other in dramaturgy and argument. In this research, which is based on a portion of my doctoral studies, I choose to present how Socrates' discourse in the Symposium adopts a research model on a single theme, namely, eros, or love. It is important to consider that Socrates uses the opportunity to praise Eros to present an investigation into the nature of philosophy. This investigation is aided by the teachings of his teacher, the philosopher/priestess Diotima. The beauty of discourses is not due to the attribution of beauty to eros; on the contrary, the beauty of a discourse lies in the nature of what it is capable of achieving. Thus, Socrates seeks to develop his discourse on love based on an investigation into its nature, which makes this investigation a philosophical one. The meanings of lack and completeness are fundamental to the Socratic passage in the Symposium. It is through this component, lack, and its relationship with its opposite, that the nature of Eros is investigated. In constructing his discourse, Socrates resorts to the idea that he intends to speak truthfully, thus presenting a confrontational relationship with doxa.

ABSTRACT This article explores Robert Greene's (c.1678–1730) overlooked critique of corpuscular philosophy, with a particular emphasis on his engagement with Isaac Newton's (1642–1727) natural philosophy. We begin by examining the institutional context of Greene's criticism at Clare Hall, University of Cambridge, a stronghold of Newton's natural philosophy. Following this, we examine the theological and natural philosophical arguments that Greene employed to challenge Newton's framework. Furthermore, we argue that Greene's critique of Newton cannot be fully appreciated without considering his criticism of John Locke's (1632–1704) epistemology. By shedding light on this early critic of Newton, we aim to offer a more nuanced perspective of Newton's impact on early eighteenth-century Cambridge.

Abstract In the academic year 1599–1600, Daniel Sennert offered a course on natural philosophy at the University of Wittenberg. When it was finished, he bundled the set of 26 disputations that accompanied the course into a separate publication and entitled it Epitome naturalis scientiæ. Although he was professor of medicine from 1602 onwards, he continued to work on natural philosophy and published three further versions of his Epitome, now in the form of a textbook. This article offers a comparative analysis of all four versions, dated 1599/1600, 1618, 1624, and 1632/33 respectively. It documents that Sennert insisted on the importance of providing students with a coherent body of doctrine, which he felt had to be Aristotelian, but at the same time introduced new empirical material into his textbooks. While these additions worked well in the case of his natural historical inserts, they were problematic in the case of his turn to an atomistic theory of matter, and they involved a full contradiction in the case of cosmology. Sennert’s case illustrates a key problem for university pedagogues in the pre-Cartesian part of the seventeenth century – namely, that of maintaining a coherent curriculum in the face of mounting counterevidence against the traditional framework.

Abstract The diffusion of Paracelsian chymistry raised many debates in late-Renaissance medicine. One important innovation was the Paracelsian conception of therapy and pharmacy, which went against the tenets of the medical tradition. This led a series of German physicians to harmonize the Paracelsian system with Galenic medicine in order to introduce chymical remedies in their method of treatment. Among the actors of such chymical compromise, Daniel Sennert (1572–1637) emerged as a major figure of early modern medicine and natural philosophy. This article examines his stance on chymical therapy in De chymicorum liber (1619), where he surveyed some early digests of Paracelsian medicine by European adepts and detractors, including Severinus, Libavius, and Du Chesne, as well as lesser-known figures such as Francus, Scheunemann, and Dienheim, among others. In appraising their views, Sennert addressed important issues, such as the religious vocation of the Paracelsian adepts, the notion of “universal cure,” the doctrine of “signatures,” and the use of metallic ingredients for drug making. His resulting account of drugs and treatment sheds light on the diffusion of chymistry in seventeenth-century learned medicine.

Abstract This article examines the intellectual legacy of Daniel Sennert (1572–1637) in Swedish academic disputations from 1600 to 1651. It analyzes how his ideas, particularly on medicine and natural philosophy, influenced the intellectual milieu of the universities of Uppsala, Tartu, and Turku. Through the lens of disputations, a key academic genre of early modern Europe, the study highlights Sennert’s prominence as a cited authority. Despite limited medical activity in Swedish universities during this period, Sennert’s works were widely utilized as textbooks, especially in philosophy and physics, reflecting his significant role in disseminating scientific knowledge. The findings reveal that Sennert’s ideas reached Swedish academia primarily through alumni of Wittenberg University, where he taught. The study underscores the textual transmission of knowledge and the role of institutional libraries in amplifying Sennert’s influence within early modern Sweden’s unique and uniform academic framework.

The introduction to this double special issue lays out our core questions: how was fire understood within premodern cultures of knowledge and practice? What could fire do, and what could humans do with fire? The introduction details our hands-on exploration of these issues through a range of fire technologies at an interdisciplinary workshop on “Fire Arts, Pasts and Futures” at Texas A&M University. It outlines the issues and new questions raised by this practical work, and shows how these are addressed in the contributions to this issue. These case studies explore the practices of premodern artisans, alchemists, metalworkers, natural philosophers, and chemical practitioners, ranging from low-heat technologies such as distillation to high-heat smelting furnaces, and from ancient metallurgy to modern-day jewellery practice. Collectively, we argue, the articles contribute to three main areas of historical scholarship: the place of fire in changing cosmologies and matter theories, debates about the agencies of art vs. nature, and methodological reflections on using performative methods as part of an interdisciplinary exploration of past material worlds.

Abstract This essay explores the ties between Daniel Sennert and the University of Padua. It first reconstructs personal ties due to the circulation of students, books and ideas between Wittenberg and Padua as mediated by the German Nation of Artists in Padua. Secondly, it examines debates in Padua on the origins of life, that Sennert followed and to which he reacted. As this essay shows, authors such as Fortunio Liceti were important references for Sennert. But he also adopted from radical Paduan thinkers such as Pietro Pomponazzi and Cesare Cremonini a rational attitude to questions of natural philosophy that informed his own approach to theologically controversial problems. Believing that there were different approaches to the truth, Sennert viewed rational inquiry and revelation as complementary, while embracing a naturalistic approach to questions of the origins of life and the operations of the soul, including the rational faculty. He excluded the separability of soul and body in the domain of natural philosophy, while not excluding this very possibility for God, who operates beyond the limits of physics. His naturalistic position alarmed the Inquisition, much to the displeasure of Italian authors who praised Sennert.

Abstract Renaissance natural philosophers and physicians engaged in intense debates on occult qualities at the threshold of the Scientific Revolution. Daniel Sennert of Wittenberg played a significant role in these debates through his assiduous research. His efforts were crystallized in two works of his mature period: an inquiry into occult qualities as the second book of his Physical Memoirs (1636); and the massive volume On Occult Diseases (1635). Indeed, the Renaissance debates on occult qualities were closely related to those of occult diseases, as both issues were intertwined and fervently advanced by Jean Fernel of Paris. Sennert’s lifelong quest for occult qualities and occult diseases was a critical response to Fernel’s ideas.

Abstract This paper examines the themes of secrecy, deception, and openness in early modern chymistry and medicine, focusing on episodes from the correspondence of the prominent German physician and natural philosopher Daniel Sennert. It highlights how Sennert and his brother-in-law, the Breslau municipal physician Michael Döring, confronted a culture rife with fraudulent claims and secretive practices that were especially prevalent amid the economic and political instability that prevailed during the Thirty Years’ War. The paper reveals their struggles against the charlatanism of those who sought to exploit the chaotic medical marketplace of the time, and the analysis extends to the broader implications of their advocacy for transparency that drew upon humanist literature and Christian religious ideals. This work positions Sennert as an archetypical figure in the transition towards skepticism and openness in science, highlighting the significant role of German chymical physicians in shaping early modern scientific discourse.