Andrew Cooper presents the first systematic study of Kant's account of natural history. Cooper contends that Kant made a decisive contribution to one of the most explosive and understudied revolutions in the history of science: the addition of time to the frame in which explanations are required, sought, and justified in natural science.
Through addressing a wide range of Kant's works, Cooper challenges the claim that Kant's theory of science denies a developmental conception of nature and argues instead that it establishes a method by which natural historians can genuinely dispute historical claims and potentially come to consensus. This method, Cooper argues, can be used to expose serious flaws in Kant's own historical reasoning, including the formation and defence of his racist views. The book will be valuable to philosophers seeking to discern both the power and limitations of Kant's theory of science, and to historians of science working on the fractured landscape of eighteenth-century Newtonianism.
Recenzijos
... the ground covered is truly impressive... a rich book that will repay closer study. * HOPOS: The Journal of the International Society for the History and Philosophy of Science * ... eminently readable and enlightening. * The European Legacy * [ Cooper's] book does a great job in showing how natural history is folded into Kant's general theory of science, making it increasingly difficult to ignore the centrality of this crucial aspect of Kant's system and of his theory of race. * European Journal of Philosophy *
Preface
Note on citations
Introduction
Part I: The transformation of natural history
1. Nature and art
2. Charting terra incognita
Part II: Kant's physical system of nature
3. Universal natural history
4. Physical geography
Part III: Critical philosophy and scientific method
5. Seeking order in nature
6. From natural products to organized beings
7. The method of natural history
Conclusion
Bibliography
Andrew Cooper is an Associate Professor of Philosophy at the University of Warwick. He is author of The Tragedy of Philosophy: Kant's Critique of Judgment and the Project of Aesthetics (SUNY Press, 2016) and has published numerous articles on Kant, post-Kantian philosophy, and philosophy of science.
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