Call for Papers - Historical and Philosophical Perspectives on Modern Science from the 16th through the 18th Centuries

2026-05-18

Call for Papers

Historical and Philosophical Perspectives on Modern Science from the 16th through the 18th Centuries

Transversal: International Journal for the Historiography of Science will receive proposals for articles that seek to reflect Historical and Philosophical Perspectives on Modern Science from the 16th through the 18th Centuries for the issue of June 2027.

The period between the 16th and 18th centuries was marked by profound artistic, scientific, and cultural transformations that gave rise to a new conception of the universe and humanity. Closely intertwined, science and philosophy have left a legacy that continues to invite us to explore the various themes and thinkers of this period, during which one of the greatest scientific revolutions took place.

While the works of Nicolaus Copernicus, Tycho Brahe, and Johannes Kepler in the field of astronomy are directly associated with the emergence of a new image of the celestial world, Galileo Galilei’s telescopic observations gave rise to a wide-ranging debate concerning geocentric and heliocentric theories. The repercussions of this debate are reflected in the theological and cosmological discussions led by the Florentine physicist, mathematician, and philosopher, as well as in the formulation of physical arguments aimed at neutralizing objections to the Earth’s motion.

The mechanistic conception of nature and of human beings guides scientific inquiry across the most diverse branches of natural philosophy, requiring new ontologies both of matter and of bodies, which in many cases are associated with the understanding of the functioning of machines – a theme explored in treatises on mechanics, such as those written by Simon Stevin, Galileo Galilei, Gilles Personne de Roberval, and René Descartes. This new ontology of matter and of bodies also finds in chemistry a vast field of investigation, in which Robert Boyle and Antoine Lavoisier are key figures. Although strongly influenced by mechanism, modern chemistry develops its own set of problems, centered on textures, aggregates, and material transformations that are not always reducible to the strict mechanical-geometrical model. Furthermore, the mechanistic conception of the bodies of humans and animals becomes increasingly central, as can be seen in the works of William Harvey and René Descartes. It is this same mechanistic conception of the world that will become especially dominant in the development of physics, whose culmination is reached in the works of Isaac Newton.

Another fundamental aspect concerns the close and fruitful relationship between philosophy, science, and method. In this context, the works of Francis Bacon and René Descartes stand as two fundamental references. Concern with method became one of the pillars of the scientific and philosophical turn that emerged from the work of various authors from the late 16th century throughout the 17th century, with decisive implications for the epistemological renewal that would extend into the eighteenth century through the works of Locke, Hume, Leibniz, and Kant.

Also noteworthy during this period are the technical developments that would prove crucial to the constitution of modern science, such as the astronomical instruments constructed and refined by Tycho Brahe.

It is within this broad period, from the 16th to the 18th century, that scientific and philosophical exchange intensified, whether through the creation and development of scientific circles and societies, or through the extensive correspondence that developed at the time. If Marin Mersenne can be regarded as one of the most important promoters of scientific exchange in the emerging modern science, the Royal Society is, without a doubt, one of its greatest institutions of scientific debate.

For this dossier, we invite researchers to submit contributions that fall within the broad historical and thematic scope briefly outlined above. Submissions addressing the following topics are therefore welcome:

Astronomy, cosmology, and the scientific and philosophical debate surrounding Copernicanism;
Theories of matter, mechanism, and modern science;
Mechanistic conceptions of nature in the development of physics, chemistry, and biology;
Mechanics and its role in the development of mechanistic philosophy;
Questions of methods in early modern natural philosophy;
The metaphysical foundations of modern science;
Technical developments of the period;
Science, modernity, and epistemology;
The role of scientific and philosophical exchange in modern science.

Submission details:

To be considered for the June 2027 issue, submissions must be received by February 28, 2027, via the journal webpage.
Papers should be prepared in accordance with the journal’s guidelines for authors and formatted for double-anonymised review.

https://periodicos.ufmg.br/index.php/transversal/about/submissions