sociology:

scientific study of society, patterns of social relationships, social interaction & culture; a social science using various methods of empirical investigation & critical analysis to develop a body of knowledge about social order, acceptance & change; defined by Comte (1798–1857) a French philosopher of science.  He & Marx (1818–1883) tried to develop scientifically justified systems following industrialization & secularization and informed by various key movements in the philosophies of history & science.

 

postulate:

assume without proof as self-evident; take for granted; to claim or assume the existence or truth of somethig, especially as a basis for reasoning or arguing.

 

polemics:

the art or practice of disputation or controversy

 

“Weltgetriebe durch Hunger und durch Liebe”:

German, literally: World gear through hunger and love, or World drive through hunger & sex; attributed to Schiller, from his The Sublime, a theoretical treatise looking to extend some of the ideas of Kant; appeared 1793 in the journal Neue Thalia.

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Rationalism:

philosophical belief based on the epistemological view that regards reason as the chief source & test of knowledge; a methodology in which the criterion for truth is not sensory but intellectual and deductive

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Materialism:

a form of philosophical monism holding that matter is the fundamental substance in nature, that all things, including mental aspects & consciousness, are results of material interactions; belief that Matter and the physical laws that govern it constitute the most reliable guide to the nature of mind and consciousness

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physiological:

branch of biology dealing with the functions and activities of living organisms and their parts, including all physical and chemical processes

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dispensation:

a certain order, system, or arrangement; administration or management; the divine ordering of the affairs of the world

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hypothesis:

proposition, or set of propositions, an explanation for the occurrence of some specified group of phenomena, asserted as a provisional conjecture to guide investigation (working hypothesis) or accepted as highly probable in the light of established facts.  A proposition assumed as a premise in an argument

 

Wahlverwandtschaften (Goethe):

Elective Affinities (aka Kindred by Choice) a novel (1809); title is a scientific term which describes the tendency of chemical species to combine with certain substances or species in preference to others.  The novel is based on the metaphor of human passions being governed or regulated by the laws of chemical affinity & examines whether or not the science & laws of chemistry undermine or uphold the institution of marriage, as well as other human social relations.  In the book, people are described as chemical species whose amorous affairs and relationships were pre-determined via chemical affinities similar to the pairings of alchemical species. Goethe outlined the view that passion, marriage, conflict & free will are all subject to the laws of chemistry, the lives of human species are regulated no differently from the lives of chemical species.