1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910455280303321

Autore

Hyder David Jalal <1964->

Titolo

The determinate world [[electronic resource] ] : Kant and Helmholtz on the physical meaning of geometry / / by David Hyder

Pubbl/distr/stampa

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

ISBN

1-282-71672-7

9786612716720

3-11-021720-1

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (238 p.)

Collana

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

Classificazione

CF 5017

Disciplina

516

516.001

Soggetti

Geometry - Philosophy

Electronic books.

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Note generali

Description based upon print version of record.

Nota di bibliografia

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Nota di contenuto

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

Sommario/riassunto

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.