The determinate world : Kant and Helmholtz on the physical meaning of geometry / by David Hyder.

Format:

• Book

Author/Creator:

• Hyder, David Jalal, 1964-

Contributor:

• Class of 1932 Fund.

Series:

• Quellen und Studien zur Philosophie ; Bd. 69.
• Quellen und Studien zur Philosophie, 0344-8142 ; Bd. 69

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

• Geometry--Philosophy.
• Geometry--History--19th century.
• Helmholtz, Hermann von, 1821-1894.
• Kant, Immanuel, 1724-1804.
• Kant, Immanuel, 1724-1804. Metaphysische Anfangsgründe der Naturwissenschaft.
• Color--History.
• Color.
• History.
• Geometry.

Physical Description:

viii, 229 pages ; 24 cm.

Other Title:

Kant and Helmholtz on the physical meaning of geometry

Place of Publication:

Berlin ; New York : Walter de Gruyter, [2009]

Summary:

This book offers a new interpretation of Hermann von Helmholtz's work on the epistemology of geometry. A detailed analysis of the philosophical arguments of helmholtz's Erhaltung der Kraft shows that he took physical theories to be constrained by a regulative ideal. They must render nature "completely comprehensible," which implies that all physical magnitudes must be relations among empirically given phenomena. This conviction eventually forced Helmholtz to explain how geometry itself could be so construed. Hyder shows how Helmholtz answered this question by drawing on the theory of magnitudes developed in his research on the colour-space. He argues against the dominant interpretation of Helmholtz's work by suggesting that for the latter, it is less the inductive character of geometry that makes it empirical, and rather the regulative requirement that the system of natural science be empirically closed.

Contents:

• 1. Introduction
• 2. The empirical determination of physical concepts in Kant's Metaphysical foundations of natural science
• 3. Helmholtz on the comprehension of nature
• 4. Colour-theory and manifolds
• 5. The road to empirical geometry
• 6. Helmholtz on geometry, 1868-1878
• 7. Conclusion.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages [215]-219) and index.

Local Notes:

Acquired for the Penn Libraries with assistance from the Class of 1932 Fund.

ISBN:

• 9783110183917
• 3110183919

OCLC:

436866916

Online:

The Class of 1932 Fund Home Page