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E-book
Author Hyder, David Jalal, 1964-

Title The determinate world : Kant and Helmholtz on the physical meaning of geometry / by David Hyder
Published Berlin ; New York : Walter de Gruyter, ©2009

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Description 1 online resource (viii, 229 pages) : illustrations
Series Quellen und Studien zur Philosophie, 0344-8142 ; Bd. 69
Quellen und Studien zur Philosophie ; Bd. 69.
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
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
Bibliography Includes bibliographical references (pages 215-219) and index
Notes In English
Print version record
Subject Helmholtz, Hermann von, 1821-1894.
Kant, Immanuel, 1724-1804.
Kant, Immanuel, 1724-1804. Metaphysische Anfangsgründe der Naturwissenschaft.
SUBJECT Helmholtz, Hermann von, 1821-1894 fast
Kant, Immanuel, 1724-1804 fast
Metaphysische Anfangsgründe der Naturwissenschaft (Kant, Immanuel) fast
Subject Geometry -- Philosophy
Geometry -- History -- 19th century
Color -- History
MATHEMATICS -- Geometry -- General.
Color
Geometry
Geometry -- Philosophy
Philosophie
Geometrie
Genre/Form History
Form Electronic book
ISBN 9783110217209
3110217201
1282716727
9781282716728
Other Titles Kant and Helmholtz on the physical meaning of geometry