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

Format:

Book

Thesis/Dissertation

Author/Creator:

Hyder, David Jalal, 1964-

Series:

Quellen und Studien zur Philosophie ; Bd. 69.

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

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Geometry--Philosophy.

Geometry.

Kant, Immanuel, 1724-1804.

Kant, Immanuel.

Helmholtz, Hermann von, 1821-1894.

Helmholtz, Hermann von.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (238 p.)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Berlin ; New York : Walter de Gruyter, 2009.

Language Note:

English

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:

Frontmatter

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

Backmatter

Notes:

Description based upon print version of record.

Habilitation Universität Konstanz 2003.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9786612716720

9781282716728

1282716727

9783110217209

3110217201

OCLC:

560705912