Kant and the Exact Sciences

迈克尔·弗里德曼：康德和精确科学

基本信息

Author：Michael Friedman

Format：Paperback | 378 pages

Dimensions：156 x 235 x 25.4mm | 535g

Publication date：19 Aug 1998

Publisher：Harvard University Press

Language: English

ISBN10：0674500369

ISBN13：9780674500365

页面参数仅供参考，具体以实物为准

内容简介

康德一生都在寻求为他那个时代的科学——尤其是欧几里德几何和牛顿物理——提供一种哲学。在这本新书中，迈克尔·弗里德曼认为，康德不断努力寻找一种可以为科学提供基础的形而上学，这对于理解他的哲学思想的发展至关重要，从1747年的论文中最早开始，到《纯粹理性批判》，再到他最后未发表的作品《Opus postumum》。

以前的评论康德的人一般都极力贬低这些努力，因为所讨论的科学已经过时了。弗里德曼认为，与此相反，康德的哲学是由他对精确科学的基础异乎寻常的深刻见解所塑造的，这代表了他的哲学最伟大的优点之一。在第一部分中，弗里德曼检视了康德与几何、算术和代数、力学基础和万有引力定律的接触。然后，他将第二部分献给《Opus postumum》，说明康德需要与热物理和化学的发展达成一致，这是他计划从自然科学的形而上学基础过渡到物理的主要动机。

《康德和精确科学》是一本学术成就很高的书，以令人印象深刻的力量论证。这是我们对康德科学哲学认识上的一大进步。

Kant sought throughout his life to provide a philosophy adequate to the sciences of his time—especially Euclidean geometry and Newtonian physics. In this new book, Michael Friedman argues that Kant's continuing efforts to find a metaphysics that could provide a foundation for the sciences is of the utmost importance in understanding the development of his philosophical thought from its earliest beginnings in the thesis of 1747, through the Critique of Pure Reason, to his last unpublished writings in the Opus postumum.

Previous commentators on Kant have typically minimized these efforts because the sciences in question have since been outmoded. Friedman argues that, on the contrary, Kant's philosophy is shaped by extraordinarily deep insight into the foundations of the exact sciences as he found them, and that this represents one of the greatest strengths of his philosophy. Friedman examines Kant's engagement with geometry, arithmetic and algebra, the foundations of mechanics, and the law of gravitation in Part One. He then devotes Part Two to the Opus postumum, showing how Kant's need to come to terms with developments in the physics of heat and in chemistry formed a primary motive for his projected Transition from the Metaphysical Foundations of Natural Science to Physics.

Kant and the Exact Sciences is a book of high scholarly achievement, argued with impressive power. It represents a great advance in our understanding of Kant's philosophy of science.

作者简介

迈克尔·弗里德曼是芝加哥伊利诺斯大学的哲学教授，著有《时空理论的基础》一书，该书获得了美国哲学协会的马切特奖，也被《纽约时报》评为年度最佳书籍之一。

Michael Friedman is Professor of Philosophy at the University of Illinois, Chicago, and the author of Foundations of Space-Time Theories, which won the Machette Prize of the American Philosophical Association and was also named among the best books of the year by the New York Times.

目录

Preface

Introduction: Metaphysics and Exact Science in the Evolution of Kant's Thought

PART ONE: THE CRITICAL PERIOD

1. Geometry

2. Concepts and Intuitions in the Mathematical Sciences

3. Metaphysical Foundations of Newtonian Science

4. Space, the Understanding, and the Law of Gravitation: Prolegomena § 38

PART TWO: THE OPUS POSTUMUM

5. Transition from the Metaphysical Foundations of Natural Science to Physics

I The Transition Project and the Metaphysical Foundations

II The Transition Project and Reflective Judgement

III The Chemical Revolution

IV The Aether-Deduction

V The Fate of the Aether-Deduction

References and Translations for Kant's Writings

General Bibliography

Index