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The Determinate World : Kant and Helmholtz on the Physical Meaning of Geometry / David Hyder.

By: Material type: TextTextSeries: Quellen und Studien zur Philosophie ; 69Publisher: Berlin ; Boston : De Gruyter, [2009]Copyright date: ©2009Description: 1 online resource (229 p.)Content type:
Media type:
Carrier type:
ISBN:
  • 9783110183917
  • 9783110217209
Subject(s): Other classification:
  • online - DeGruyter
Online resources: Available additional physical forms:
  • Issued also in print.
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
Dissertation note: Habilitation Universität Konstanz 2003. 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.

Habilitation Universität Konstanz 2003.

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

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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.

Issued also in print.

Mode of access: Internet via World Wide Web.

In English.

Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (publisher's Web site, viewed 28. Feb 2023)