''Metaphysical Foundations of Natural Science'' () is a 1786 book by the philosopher

Immanuel Kant Immanuel Kant (born Emanuel Kant; 22 April 1724 – 12 February 1804) was a German Philosophy, philosopher and one of the central Age of Enlightenment, Enlightenment thinkers. Born in Königsberg, Kant's comprehensive and systematic works ...

Summary

The book is divided into four chapters. The chapters are concerned with the

metaphysical Metaphysics is the branch of philosophy that examines the basic structure of reality. It is traditionally seen as the study of mind-independent features of the world, but some theorists view it as an inquiry into the conceptual framework of h ...

foundations of phoronomy (now called

kinematics In physics, kinematics studies the geometrical aspects of motion of physical objects independent of forces that set them in motion. Constrained motion such as linked machine parts are also described as kinematics. Kinematics is concerned with s ...

), dynamics,

mechanics Mechanics () is the area of physics concerned with the relationships between force, matter, and motion among Physical object, physical objects. Forces applied to objects may result in Displacement (vector), displacements, which are changes of ...

, and

phenomenology Phenomenology may refer to: Art * Phenomenology (architecture), based on the experience of building materials and their sensory properties Philosophy * Phenomenology (Peirce), a branch of philosophy according to Charles Sanders Peirce (1839� ...

Reception

Kant's book was a basic influence on the rise of science departments of the universities in the German-speaking countries in the nineteenth century.

Hans Christian Ørsted Hans Christian Ørsted (; 14 August 1777 – 9 March 1851), sometimes Transliteration, transliterated as Oersted ( ), was a Danish chemist and physicist who discovered that electric currents create magnetic fields. This phenomenon is known as ...

wrote " Differential and

integral calculus In mathematics, an integral is the continuous analog of a sum, which is used to calculate areas, volumes, and their generalizations. Integration, the process of computing an integral, is one of the two fundamental operations of calculus,Int ...

consist of nothing but ..

thought experiment A thought experiment is an imaginary scenario that is meant to elucidate or test an argument or theory. It is often an experiment that would be hard, impossible, or unethical to actually perform. It can also be an abstract hypothetical that is ...

s and considerations of them. ... In his ''Metaphysical Foundations of Natural Science'', Kant has given us the most beautiful examples of this kind of presentation, without, however, drawing attention to it himself."Karen Jelved, Andrew D. Jackson, and Ole Knudsen, (1997) translators for ''Selected Scientific Works of Hans Christian Ørsted'', , p. 296. Section 16 of Chapter 29, "First Introduction to General Physics: the Spirit, Meaning, and Goal of Natural Science". (Copenhagen 1811, in Danish, printed by Johan Frederik Schulz. In Kirstine Meyer's 1920 edition of Ørsted's works, pp. 151–190.) Reprinted (1836) Schweigger's ''Journal für Chemie und Physik'' 36, pp. 458–488.

Kurt Gödel Kurt Friedrich Gödel ( ; ; April 28, 1906 – January 14, 1978) was a logician, mathematician, and philosopher. Considered along with Aristotle and Gottlob Frege to be one of the most significant logicians in history, Gödel profoundly ...

was influenced by ''Metaphysische Anfangsgründe der Naturwissenschaft''. Gödel studied it while a member of the

Vienna Circle The Vienna Circle () of logical empiricism was a group of elite philosophers and scientists drawn from the natural and social sciences, logic and mathematics who met regularly from 1924 to 1936 at the University of Vienna, chaired by Moritz Sc ...

Notes

External links

* {{Authority control 1786 non-fiction books Books by Immanuel Kant Books about science German non-fiction books Metaphysics books