Hostname: page-component-745bb68f8f-f46jp Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-01-13T12:58:11.403Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The Development of Kant's Conception of Scientific Explanation

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 February 2022

Edward MacKinnon
Edward MacKinnon*
Affiliation:
California State University-Hayward
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

Kant's Metaphysical Foundations of Natural Science is undoubtedly the most neglected and misunderstood of all his major works. It should, I believe, be interpreted as an attempted rational reconstruction of the mechanics of Newton and Euler. What Kant attempted to reconstruct, however, were the conceptual foundations of science rather than the logical structure. The reasons for this as well as the particular way in which it was done can best be understood in the light of Kant's own philosophical development. In summarizing this I will focus on two interrelated issues: Kant's concept of matter, which changed somewhat in the course of his long development; and his interpretation of scientific explanation, which changed considerably.

Kant's earliest concerns with scientific explanation involved three aspects of interest here: Christian Wolff's (1679-1754) systematization of philosophy, which served as his point of departure; the ideas on scientific methodology, which he derived from Isaac Newton; and Kant's own work in science.

Type
Part I. History of Philosophy of Science
Information
PSA: Proceedings of the Biennial Meeting of the Philosophy of Science Association , Volume 1978 , Issue 1: Volume One: Contributed Papers 1978 , 1978 , pp. 18 - 30
Copyright
Copyright © 1978 by the Philosophy of Science Association

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

1

This is a digested version of material that will be presented more fully as chapter two in my forthcoming Atomic Physics and Scientific Explanation.

References

Euler, L. Opera Omnia. Lausanne: Swiss Society of Natural Science, 1911.Google Scholar
Heidegger, M. Kant and the Problem of Metaphysics. Translated by J.S. Churchill. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1962. (Translated from Kant und das problem der metaphysik. Frankfurt: V. Klastermann, 1951.)Google Scholar
Hintikka, J. and Remes, U. The Method of Analysis. Dordrecht, Holland: D. Reidel, 1974.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kant, I. Kant's gesammelte Schriften. Berlin: Könglich Preussischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, 1902-1972.Google Scholar
Kant, I. Gedanken von der wahren Schätzung der lebendigen Kräfte und Beurteilung der Beweise (1746), In [4] Volume I. Pages 1-181. (English selections: Thoughts on the True Estimation of Living Forces. In Kant's Inaugural Dissertation. (trans.) Handyside, J.. Chicago: Open Court, 1929. Pages 1–15.)Google Scholar
Kant, I. Die Erde in ihrer Umdrehung um die Achse (1754), In [4] Volume I. Pages 183-191. (English translation: Examination of the Question Whether the Earth has Undergone an Alteration of its Axial Rotation. In Kant's Cosmogony. (trans.) Hastie, W.. Glasgow: James MacLehose and Sons, 1900. Pages 1–11.)Google Scholar
Kant, I. Allegemeine Naturgeschichte und Theorie des Himmels (1755). In [4] Volume I. Pages 215-368. (English translation: Universal Natural History and Theory of the Heavens. In Kant's Cosmogony. (trans.) Hastie, W.. Glasgow: James MacLehose and Sons, 1900. Pages 13–167.)Google Scholar
Kant, I. De Igne (1755). In [4] Volume 1. Pages 369–384.Google Scholar
Kant, I. Principiorum Primorum Cognitionis Metaphysicae Nova Dilucidatio (1755). In [4], Volume I. Pages 385-416. (English translation: A New Exposition of the First Principles of Metaphysical Knowledge. In Kant's Conception of God. F.E. England. New York: The Dial Press, 1929. Pages 213–252.)Google Scholar
Kant, I. Ursachen der Erderschutterungen (1756). In [4], Volume I. Pages 417–427.Google Scholar
Kant, I. Monadologia Physica (1756). In [4], Volume I. Pages 473–487.Google Scholar
Kant, I. Theorie der Winde (1756). In [4], Volume I. Pages 489–503.Google Scholar
Kant, I. Versuch, den Begriff der negativen Grössen in die Weltweisheit einzuführen (1763). In [4], Volume II. Pages 165–204.Google Scholar
Kant, I. Untersuchung über die Deutlichkeit der Grundsätze der natürlichen Theologie und der Moral (1764). In [4], Volume II. Pages 273-301. (English translation: The Distinction of the Principles of Natural Theology and Morals. In Kant's Critique of Practical Reason and Other Writings in Moral Philosophy. (trans.) Beck, L.W.. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1949. Pages 261–285.)Google Scholar
Kant, I. Träume eines Geistersehers, erläutert durch Träume der Metaphysik (1766). In [4], Volume II. Pages 315-373. (English translation: Dreams of a Spirit Seer, (trans.) Manolesco, J.. New York: Vantage Press, 1969. Pages 29–98.)Google Scholar
Kant, I. Von den ersten Grunde des Unterschiedes der Gegenden im Raume. (1768). In [4], Volume II. Pages 375-383. (English translation: Concerning the Ultimate Foundation of the Differentiation of Regions in Space. In Kant: Selected Precritical Writings and Correspondence with Beck. (trans. and intro.) Kerferd, G.B. and Walford, D.E.. Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1968. Pages 36–43.)Google Scholar
Kant, I. De Mundi Sensibilis atque Intelligiblis Forma et Principiis. (1770). In [4], Volume II. Pages 385-419. (English translation: Dissertation on the Form and Principles of the Sensible and the Intelligible World. In Kant's Inaugural Dissertation. (trans.) Handyside, J.. Chicago: Open Court, 1929. Pages 33–85.)Google Scholar
Kant, I. Kritik der reinen Vernunft. 2nd. ed. 1787. In [4], Volume III. (English translation: Critique of Pure Reason. (trans.) Smith, N.K.. London: MacMillan, 1963.)Google Scholar
Kant, I. Die metaphysischen Anfangsgründe der Naturwissenschaft (1786). In [4], Volume IV. Pages 465-565. (English translation: Metaphysical Foundations of Natural Science. (trans.). Ellington, J.. Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill, 1970. Pages 1–134.)Google Scholar
Kant, I. Kritik der Urteilskraft (1790). In [4], Volume V. Pages 165-485. (English translation: The Critique of Judgment. (trans.) Meredith, J.C.. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1952.)Google Scholar
Kant, I. Vorlesungen Kants Über Logik. (ed.) Jäsche, G.B. (1800). In [4], Volume IX. Pages 1-150. (English translation: Logic. (trans.) Hartmann, R. and Schwarz, W. Indianpolis: Bobbs-Merrill, 1974.)Google Scholar
Kant, I. Opus Postumum. In [4], Volume XXI and XXII.Google Scholar
Kant, I. Philosophical Correspondence, 1759-99. (ed. and trans.) Zweig, A.. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1967.Google Scholar
Newton, I. Opticks. 1st ed. (1704) 2nd ed. (1706). (As reprinted in Great Books of the Western World, Volume 34. Edited by Hutchins, Robert M.. Chicago: Encyclopedia Britannica, 1952. Pages 375–544.)Google Scholar
Reuscher, J.A. “A Clarification and Critique of Kant's Principiorum Primorum Nova Dilucidatio.” Kantstudien 68(1977): 18–32.Google Scholar
Wolff, Christian. Gesammelte Werke. (ed.) Ecole, Jean. Hildesheim: Georg Olms Verlagsbuchhandlung, 1962.Google Scholar