Kant's Metaphysical Foundations of Natural Science: A Critical Guide (Cambridge Critical Guides)

"Immanuel Kant long sought to write a metaphysics of nature. In a 1765 letter to Johann Heinrich Lambert, Kant reported that he was postponing the general project he had been working on, the "Proper Method of Metaphysics." He would instead produce the paired "Metaphysical Foundations of Natural Philosophy" [metaphysische Anfangsgrèunde der natèurlichen Weltweisheit] and "Metaphysical Foundations of Practical Philosophy" [der praktischen Weltweisheit] (Br, 10:56; see Fèorster 1989, 289-90) as particular examples in concreto of the proper philosophical methodology. Despite Kant's claim that the "content" of these projects was "already worked out," they were, in turn, deferred and subsequently shelved during his writing of the Inaugural Dissertation (MSI) and the subsequent tumult to his metaphysical outlook left in its wake. Nonetheless, Kant still harbored ambition to write a metaphysics of nature, expressing his hope to return to this project in the preface of the 1781 first edition of the Critique of Pure Reason while acknowledging that a critique of reason must antecede his metaphysical ambitions: "[The] Metaphysics of Nature...will be not half so extensive but will be incomparably richer in content than this critique, which had first to display the sources and conditions of its possibility, and needed to clear and level a ground that was completely overgrown" (KrV, Axxi)"-- "Immanuel Kant long sought to write a metaphysics of nature. In a 1765 letter to Johann Heinrich Lambert, Kant reported that he was postponing the general project he had been working on, the "Proper Method of Metaphysics." He would instead produce the paired "Metaphysical Foundations of Natural Philosophy" [metaphysische Anfangsgründe der natürlichen Weltweisheit] and "Metaphysical Foundations of Practical Philosophy" [der praktischen Weltweisheit] (Br, 10:56; see Förster 1989, 289-90) as particular examples in concreto of the proper philosophical methodology. Despite Kant's claim that the "content" of these projects was "already worked out," they were, in turn, deferred and subsequently shelved during his writing of the Inaugural Dissertation (MSI) and the subsequent tumult to his metaphysical outlook left in its wake. Nonetheless, Kant still harbored ambition to write a metaphysics of nature, expressing his hope to return to this project in the preface of the 1781 first edition of the Critique of Pure Reason while acknowledging that a critique of reason must antecede his metaphysical ambitions: "[The] Metaphysics of Nature...will be not half so extensive but will be incomparably richer in content than this critique, which had first to display the sources and conditions of its possibility, and needed to clear and level a ground that was completely overgrown" (KrV, Axxi)"-- Provided by publisher In his Metaphysical Foundations of Natural Science (1786), Kant accounts for the possibility of an acting-at-a-distance gravitational force, demonstrates the infinite divisibility of matter, and derives analogues to Newtonian laws of motion. The work is his major statement in philosophy of science, and was especially influential in German-speaking countries in the nineteenth century. However, this complex text has not received the scholarly attention it deserves. The chapters of this Critical Guide clarify the accounts of matter, motion, the mathematization of nature, space, and natural laws exhibited in the Metaphysical Foundations; elucidate the relationship between its metaphysics of nature and Kant's critical philosophy; and describe the historical context for Kant's account of natural science. The volume will be an invaluable resource for understanding one of Kant's most difficult works, and will set the agenda for future scholarship on Kant's philosophy of science. While Kant's philosophy of science is a growing field of study, his Metaphysical Foundations of Natural Science has often been poorly understood. This volume will be an invaluable resource for understanding one of Kant's most difficult works, and will set the agenda for future scholarship on Kant's philosophy of science. New essays on Kant's complex work, considering its place in his oeuvre and in the history of science.