Hegel’s Philosophy of Nature has for a long time been regarded as a somewhat outdated curiosity. Burbidge argues for the significance of the book as an intermediate movement in Hegel’s system, looking specifically at three works: the two chapters of the Science of Logic that deal with the concept of chemism, and the section on chemical process in the Philosophy of Nature. Burbidge also sets Hegel’s thought in context with sketches of what Kant, Fichte, and Schelling had to say about chemistry; provides background on the stage chemistry had reached at the time Hegel was writing; and shows how Hegel changed his mind as he revised succeeding editions.
Simon Gros 
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