Thursday, July 26, 2012

Physics and Phenomena

Some interpret Kant's Metaphysical Foundations of Natural Science as an attempt to certify Newtonian Physics, i. e. by demonstrating that the latter is grounded in the a priori structures of Experience--Space, Time, and the Categories of the Understanding.  However, such an interpretation confuses Kant's ambition with Husserl's, which is to defend Science from the "crisis" of a reduction to Empiricism, and, hence, to contingency.  However, as is plain from the Critique of Pure Reason, the primary purpose of the Foundations is to demonstrate that Newtonian Physics is a system merely of Phenomena, in order both to expose some of its groundless pretensions, as well as to immunize Morality, i. e. the realm of Freedom, from it.

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