What Mathematics and Metaphysics of Corporeal Nature Offer to Each Other

Kant on the Foundations of Natural Science

Bibliographic Data

ID20510296
AuthorsMichael Bennett Mcnulty (0000-0002-7377-6905, University of Minnesota, corresponding author)
Year2023
Volume28
Issue3
Pages397-412
Publication date2023-09-01
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueKantian Review (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1369-4154 • E-ISSN: 2044-2394
PublisherCambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1017/s1369415423000250
OpenAlexW4386120836
LanguageEN
Citations received1
References cited20

Kant famously distinguishes between the methods of mathematics and of metaphysics, holding that metaphysicians err when they avail themselves of the mathematical method. Nonetheless, in the Metaphysical Foundations of Natural Science , he insists that mathematics and metaphysics must jointly ground ‘proper natural science’. This article examines the distinctive contributions and unity of mathematics and metaphysics to the foundations of the science of body. I argue that the two are distinct insofar as they involve distinctive sorts of grounding relations – mathematics pertains to formal grounding, while metaphysics concerns material grounding – while they are unified insofar as they treat motion, the fundamental determination of the science of body

Epistemology · Geography · Metaphysics · Natural science · Philosophy of science · Kantian Philosophy and Modern Interpretations · Mathematics · Philosophical Ethics and Theory · Philosophy · Seventeenth-Century Political and Philosophical Thought

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