Kant and the Laws of Nature
Cambridge University Press, 3/16/2017
EAN 9781107120983, ISBN10: 1107120985
Hardcover, 286 pages, 22.8 x 15.2 x 2.1 cm
Language: English
Laws of nature play a central role in Kant's theoretical philosophy and are crucial to understanding his philosophy of science in particular. In this volume of new essays, the first systematic investigation of its kind, a distinguished team of scholars explores Kant's views on the laws of nature in the physical and life sciences. Their essays focus particularly on the laws of physics and biology, and consider topics including the separation in Kant's treatment of the physical and life sciences, the relation between universal and empirical laws of nature, and the role of reason and the understanding in imposing order and lawful unity upon nature. The volume will be of great interest to advanced students and scholars of Kant's philosophy of science, and to historians and philosophers of science more generally.
Introduction
Part I. The Lawfulness of Nature
1. Kant on the unity and diversity of laws Eric Watkins
2. On universality, necessity, and law in general Karl Ameriks
3. Imperfect knowledge of nature
Kant, Hume and laws of nature Paul Guyer
Part II. The Systematicity of Nature
4. Why must we presuppose the systematicity of nature? Hannah Ginsborg
5. Empirical scientific investigation and the ideas of reason Rachel Zuckert
6. Kant's transcendental principle of purposiveness and the 'maxim of the lawfulness of empirical laws' Thomas Teufel
Part III. Nomic Necessity and the Metaphysics of Nature
7. Kant's necessitation account of laws and the nature of natures James Messina
8. Grounds, modality, and nomic necessity in the critical Kant Michela Massimi
9. Kant on mathematical force laws Daniel Warren
Part IV. Laws in Physics
10. Kant's conception of causal necessity and its legacy Michael Friedman
11. Metaphysical foundations of neoclassical mechanics Marius Stan
Part V. Laws in Biology
12. Laws in biology and unity of nature Angela Breitenbach
13. The building forces of nature and Kant's teleology of the living Catherine Wilson.