Real Process: How Logic and Chemistry Combine in Hegel's Philosophy of Nature by John W. Burbidge (review)

HUMANITIES 239 The complexities of gender and its interrelationship to class and race are perhaps most evident in Morgan's exploration of religious and socia~ discourse. Using the Methodists as the point of analysis, Morgan illustrates how opponents of the denomination targeted what they considered its enthusiastic disorder, linking its theology and practice to unleashed feminine sexuality. By contrast, Methodist discourse itself lauded the physical prowess and muscularChristianityofits itinerantpreachers while at the same time celebrating their 'emotional sensibility that in any other context might have been viewed as effeminate.' Gender lines were also blurred in the Methodist understanding of family. Although in the prescriptiveIiterature ,womenwere certainlyidentified as having acentral role within the family and ill promoting religious and moral values, virtuous manhood too was grounded in anddependenton itsrelationship to women and children. After an evocative discussion of Methodist preoccupation with mission work, Morganconcludes that 'the tensions and contradictions around gender and the family in evangelical discourse were extensive.' Moreover, as she illustrates in her discussion of colonial manners and mores, socially defined space was 'neither distinctively "public" nor "private " , nor 'the sole province of either "man" or "woman." , The last chapter of this intriguing volume considers how political and social discourse evolved in the post-Rebellion period. Picking up on ~e themes establishedin the earlier chapters, Morganconsiders theemergence of the new 'public man' whose actions and attitudes could not be divorced from his private conduct. She also explores the contradiction inherent in coionialllllderstanding of the 'public women.' Increasingly, 'ladies' were lauded for their 'public' work in aid of others; at the same time, 'public' women were prostitutes. Public Men and Virtuous Women is a very welcome addition to the historiography of Upper Canada. Resting on a careful and comprehensive reading of local newspapers and other manuscript material from the ' period, to which Morgan bi-ings a firm understanding of feminist and poststructuraIist analYSis, its exploration of the public discourse certainly illuminates our understanding of how Upper Canadians attempted to define themselves. (E. JANE ERRINGTON) John W. Burbidge. Real Process: How Logic and Chemistry Combine in Hegel's Philosophy ofNature University of Toronto Press. x, 274. $75.00 This study provides a window on the emerging science of modern chemistry during the late eighteenth and the early nineteenth century, but much more - it provides a mirror in which Hegel's entire project is reflected. Indeed, its value is its patient, exacting analysis of the relation between philosophical reflection and the empirical investigations of 240 LEITERS IN CANADA 1996 chemistry, i.e.. of how the latter are to be conceived in the context of a philosophy ofnature that is itself situated within a philosophy ofspirit. The careful progression of thought is traced from the abstract considerations of real measure and chernism in the Science of Logic to the reality of chemical process in the Encyclopedia: Philosophy ofNature, culminating in the concept of organism. It is a progression, however, that does not occur in nature, but rather in thought's own self-development as it comes to terms with the empirical study of nature. The transitions in the philosophy of nature are 'systematic rather than natural.' Two closelyrelated features stand outill Burbidge's interpretation: fIrst, the responsiveness or 'plasticity' of Hegel's thought as it discovers new conceptual possibilities through its relation to contemporary empirical discoveries. This is accomplished by frequent references to the chemistry textbooks of the day. From this there follows, secondly, the gradual development of Hegel's thought in response to the discoveries, specifically regarding chemical process, but more generally regarding the relation of categorial thinking to the sciences ofnature; this is accomplished by careful comparisons between the various works and editions, including the Jena writings, the Science ofLogic, and the Encyclopedia. Burbidge shows how representations in thought mutually interact with the logical concepts, and release conceptual possibilities for speculative thought within its own self-development. These empirical representations provide the occasion, though not the justification, for categorial development . Thelatter arises outofthe dissatisfaction with the inadequacy ofeach emergent concept in fulfilling its own exigency. Frequent reference to the forms of syllogism and to the logical moments ofUniversal, Particular, and Singular lets Burbidge show the means by which thought, conscious of...