Space, Time, and the Origins of Transcendental Idealism : Immanuel Kant’s Philosophy From 1747 to 1770

"This book provides an account of the unity of Immanuel Kant's early metaphysics, including the moment he invents transcendental idealism. Matthew Rukgaber argues that a division between "two worlds"--The world of matter, force, and space on the one hand, and the world of metaphysical substances with inner states and principles preserved by God on the other--is what guides Kant's thought. Until 1770 Kant consistently held a conception of space as a force-based material product of monads that are only virtually present in nature. As Rukgaber explains, transcendental idealism emerges as a constructivist metaphysics, a view in which space and time are real relations outside of the mind, but those relations are metaphysically dependent on the subject. The subject creates the simple "now" and "here," thus introducing into the intrinsically indeterminate and infinitely divisible continua of nature a metric with transformation rules that make possible all individuation and measurement."--Publisher description Acknowledgments Contents Abbreviations of Kant’s Works Chapter 1: Introduction: An Overview of the Metaphysics of the Pre-Critical and Critical Kant References Chapter 2: Space, Force, and Matter in the Early Natural Science Writings The Alternative to a Relationist Reading of Kant’s Early View of Space Space and Nature in Thoughts on the True Estimation of Living Forces Space and Matter in Universal Natural History and Theory of the Heavens Conclusion References Chapter 3: Substances, Space, and Causality in the Early Metaphysical Writings Interpreting the New Elucidation and the Physical Monadology The Metaphysics of the Causal Nexus in the New Elucidation The Principle of Succession: Physical Influence or Pre-established Harmony? The Principle of Co-existence: God’s Presence to Substances Space and Bodies in the Physical Monadology Conclusion References Chapter 4: The Development of Kant’s Pre-Critical Metaphysics from 1758 to 1766 The Steady Separation of Sense and Reason Philosophical Method and the Relation of Mathematics to Metaphysics Interpretations of Dreams of a Spirit-Seer Analysis of the First Chapter of Dreams of a Spirit-Seer: Clarifying Spiritualism Analysis of the Remainder of Dreams: Reforming Metaphysics Conclusion References Chapter 5: The Asymmetry of Space: Kant’s Theory of Absolute Space in 1768 Space as Dynamic and Asymmetrical Basic Concepts: Position (Lage) and Direction (Gegend) Kant’s Argument for Absolute Space Based on Incongruent Counterparts Kant’s Solution and the Fall of Parity Resolution of Some Interpretative Difficulties Conclusion References Chapter 6: The Moment of Transformation: Time and the Critical Turn in the Inaugural Dissertation The Collapse of the Pre-Critical Metaphysics The Subreptic Axioms and the Role of Time in Kant’s Turn The Dependency of Time on the Subject Conclusion References Chapter 7: Kant’s Theory of Space in the Inaugural Dissertation and the Birth of Transcendental Idealism Comparing Space and Time The Perceptual Account of Kant’s Theory of Space The Deflationary Account of Kant’s Theory of Space The Constructivist Account of Kant’s Theory of Space The Dependency of Space on the Subject Conclusion References Index