Call for Papers

Call for Papers

02/2026
Between Spirit and Matter:
Bachelard’s “Rhythmic Dialectics” toward the Evolution of Consciousness
Directed by
Eileen Rizo-Patron (eileenrizopatron@gmail.com)

We invite potential contributors to explore Bachelard’s “rhythmic dialectics”between the “evolution of intelligence” understood as a Promethean “technological intelligence” centered on managing our material worlds, and the “evolution spiritual consciousness,” by delving into a particular case of that relation and difference in Bachelard’s works, and its practical implications in our ever-changing world.
Bachelard’s oeuvre carefully traced the phenomeno-technological progress of humanity, as well as a mode of “anagenetic evolution,” including the awakening of poetic-mystical consciousness sparked by his works on time and imagination. Such anawakening entails an openness to surprising or unexpected revelations, capable of shattering what we hitherto “thought we knew” (including our understanding of ourselves and of our destinies).
Such reassessment is possible to the extent that human beings are willing toexamine and open both mind and heart to welcome such shocks as “gifts” rather than “punishments” or attacks to be fought against or resisted. Yielding to the primacy of some form of transcendent wisdom over logical reason, trusting its guidance, may at times feel like utter failure or surrender. Yet, at times in Bachelard’s writings, it suggests a numinous leap that can lead to a deeper, more creative mode of consciousness. One might even argue that it involves a more decisive transformation than those attained through the paradigmatic shifts in Promethean intelligence that Bachelard traced in The New Scientific Spirit, the Philosophy of No, as it implies a freely offered sacrifice and a leap of faith beyond the boundaries of reason as we know it (as stated in Le Rationalisme Appliqué, Paris, PUF, 1949, pp. 76-81).
Bachelard’s 1960’s memorial lecture in honor of his former mentor Édouard LeRoy may be of particular interest in helping readers understand the unfolding of Bachelard’s own philosophical and spiritual trajectory throughout his career. There he significantly highlights Le Roy’s close working relationship with Fr. Teilhard de Chardin (author of Activation of Energy, and The Heart of Matter) on the need forhumanity to surpass the homo faber/homo sapiens duality through the awakening of homo spiritualis... a work always in progress.
Whether it is a matter of climbing a peak, cutting up a diamond, or unraveling some complex of magnitudes tangled up in nature, the best way to get on is not generally to make a frontal attack on the difficulties that stand in our way: it is better to look right and left for the slight crack that can indirectlylead us to the heart of the problem.

Questions, angles, or specific cases to be explored on this topic include but are not limited to:

• Bachelard’s implicit anthropology as a unifying thread across his epistemological and poetic works, and its relevance for contemporary reflections on the evolution of consciousness.
• The primacy and plasticity of imagination in human ontogenesis: its rhythms, symbolic forms, and its tension with perceptual evidence.
• Rhythms of psychic life—discontinuity, alternation, memory, anticipation—and their function in the metamorphosis of the self and the emergence of a balanced, “integral” mode of being.
• Bachelard’s “rhythmic dialectics” of temporality and its implications: starting with his reading of Gaston Roupnel’s Siloë, Intuition of the Instant, and  the role of Pinheiro dos Santos’ “rhythmanalysis” in the development ofBachelard’s “anagenetic pedagogy,” including stages in the development of adynamic psyche and moral character — e.g. Dialectic of Duration, Psychoanalysis of Fire (Ch. 3, conclusion), Earth and Reveries of Will — and its transformation from violent aggression to poetic creativity (e.g. Lautréamont).
• The genesis of rationality as a labor of inner transformation, involving resistance, negation, and dialectical renewal — its relation to technical experience and scientific creativity. Importance of the recognition of objectiveand subjective error: Bachelard on the role of failure in personal evolution —e.g. Formation of the Scientific Mind, Psychoanalysis of Fire (e.g. Ch. 7, conclusion), Lautréamont (conclusion), Philosophy of No, etc.
• Bachelard’s “rhythmic pedagogy” or dialogical pedagogy of “encounter”:learning/teaching as a rhythmic, reciprocal endeavor — including theevolution of consciousness as collaborative or participatory work (e.g. role of the “school” and the notion of cogitamus in Bachelard’s Le Rationalismeappliqué (esp. chapters I-IV).
• Bachelard’s proposals on the cultivation of “mystical intelligence” in the Dialectic of Duration, Air and Dreams, The Poetics of Reverie, The Flame ofa Candle, and/or selected essays in The Right to Dream.

Submission Standards for English-language Texts:

- Texts will be submitted to the following online address:
https://www.mimesisjournals.com/ojs/index.php/bachelardstudies/about/submissions

- Texts received will be submitted for a double-blind peer review.
- The Author may propose an article of a maximum of 7,000 words in English for the sections on The Letter or Spirit, accompanied by an Abstract (150 words) and followed by five keywords in English.
- The Author may also propose a review of a maximum of 1,400 words in French.
- Manuscripts submitted anonymously must be uploaded no later than the 31st ofMay 2026 in .doc format directly from the site, with a separate document containing the author’s contact details (CV and affiliation).
As part of the submission process, authors are required to check off their submission’s compliance with the editorial norms: http://mimesisinternational.com/editorial-norms.pdf

Click here to download the Call for paper