•  152
  •  303
    Bertrand Russell's the analysis of matter: Its historical context and contemporary interest
    with William Demopoulos
    Philosophy of Science 52 (4): 621-639. 1985.
    The Analysis of Matter is perhaps best known for marking Russell's rejection of phenomenalism and his development of a variety of Lockean representationalism–-Russell's causal theory of perception. This occupies Part 2 of the work. Part 1, which is certainly less well known, contains many observations on twentieth-century physics. Unfortunately, Russell's discussion of relativity and the foundations of physical geometry is carried out in apparent ignorance of Reichenbach's and Carnap's investiga…Read more
  •  11
    Kant, Kuhn e a racionalidade da ciência
    with Tradutor: Rogério Passos Severo
    Philósophos - Revista de Filosofia 14 (1): 175-209. 2009.
    This paper considers the evolution of the problem of scientific rationality from Kant through Carnap to Kuhn. I argue for a relativized and historicized version of the original Kantian conception of scientific a priori principles and examine the way in which these principles change and develop across revolutionary paradigm shifts. The distinctively philosophical enterprise of reflecting upon and contextualizing such principles is then seen to play a key role in making possible rational intersubj…Read more
  •  74
    Kantian Themes in Contemporary Philosophy
    with Graham Bird
    Aristotelian Society Supplementary Volume 72 (1): 111-129. 1998.
    [Michael Friedman] This paper considers the extent to which Kant's vision of a distinctively 'transcendental' task for philosophy is essentially tied to his views on the foundations of the mathematical and physical sciences. Contemporary philosophers with broadly Kantian sympathies have attempted to reinterpret his project so as to isolate a more general philosophical core not so closely tied to the details of now outmoded mathematical-physical theories (Euclidean geometry and Newtonian physics)…Read more
  •  431
    Kant, Kuhn, and the rationality of science
    Philosophy of Science 69 (2): 171-90. 2002.
    This paper considers the evolution of the problem of scientific rationality from Kant through Carnap to Kuhn. I argue for a relativized and historicized version of the original Kantian conception of scientific a priori principles and examine the way in which these principles change and develop across revolutionary paradigm shifts. The distinctively philosophical enterprise of reflecting upon and contextualizing such principles is then seen to play a key role in making possible rational intersubj…Read more
  •  197
    Laws of Nature and Causal Necessity
    Kant Studien 105 (4): 531-553. 2014.
    Name der Zeitschrift: Kant-Studien Jahrgang: 105 Heft: 4 Seiten: 531-553.
  •  34
    The concept of a “scientific philosophy” first developed in the mid nineteenth century, as a reaction against what was viewed as the excessively speculative and metaphysical character of post-Kantian German idealism. One of the primary intellectual models of this movement was a celebrated address by Hermann von Helmholtz, “Über das Sehen des Menschen,” delivered at the dedication of a monument to Kant at Königsberg in 1855. Helmholtz begins by asking, on behalf of the audience, why a natural sci…Read more
  •  89
    Kuhn and Philosophy
    Modern Intellectual History 9 (1): 77-88. 2012.
  •  168
    Newton and Kant: Quantity of matter in the Metaphysical Foundations of Natural Science
    Southern Journal of Philosophy 50 (3): 482-503. 2012.
    Immanuel Kant's Metaphysical Foundations of Natural Science (1786) provides metaphysical foundations for the application of mathematics to empirically given nature. The application that Kant primarily has in mind is that achieved in Isaac Newton's Principia (1687). Thus, Kant's first chapter, the Phoronomy, concerns the mathematization of speed or velocity, and his fourth chapter, the Phenomenology, concerns the empirical application of the Newtonian notions of true or absolute space, time, and …Read more
  •  62
    Realism, and Modern Physics
    In Don Ross, James Ladyman & Harold Kincaid (eds.), Scientific metaphysics, Oxford University Press. pp. 182. 2013.
  •  496
    Kant on geometry and spatial intuition
    Synthese 186 (1): 231-255. 2012.
    I use recent work on Kant and diagrammatic reasoning to develop a reconsideration of central aspects of Kant’s philosophy of geometry and its relation to spatial intuition. In particular, I reconsider in this light the relations between geometrical concepts and their schemata, and the relationship between pure and empirical intuition. I argue that diagrammatic interpretations of Kant’s theory of geometrical intuition can, at best, capture only part of what Kant’s conception involves and that, fo…Read more
  • Kant: Metaphysical Foundations of Natural Science (edited book)
    Cambridge University Press. 2004.
    Kant was centrally concerned with issues in the philosophy of natural science throughout his career. The Metaphysical Foundations of Natural Science presents his most mature reflections on these themes in the context of both his 'critical' philosophy, presented in the Critique of Pure Reason, and the natural science of his time. This volume presents a translation by Michael Friedman which is especially clear and accurate. There are explanatory notes indicating some of the main connections betwee…Read more
  •  22
    The Cambridge Companion to Carnap (edited book)
    with Richard Creath
    Cambridge University Press. 2007.
    Rudolf Carnap is increasingly regarded as one of the most important philosophers of the twentieth century. He was one of the leading figures of the logical empiricist movement associated with the Vienna Circle and a central figure in the analytic tradition more generally. He made major contributions to philosophy of science and philosophy of logic, and, perhaps most importantly, to our understanding of the nature of philosophy as a discipline. In this volume a team of contributors explores the m…Read more
  • (edited book)
    MIT Press. 2006.
  •  52
    Historians of philosophy, science, and mathematics explore the influence of Kant's philosophy on the evolution of modern scientific thought.
  •  79
    Kant's Metaphysical Foundations of Natural Science is one of the most difficult but also most important of Kant's works. Published in 1786 between the first and second editions of the Critique of Pure Reason, the Metaphysical Foundations occupies a central place in the development of Kant's philosophy, but has so far attracted relatively little attention compared with other works of Kant's critical period. Michael Friedman's book develops a new and complete reading of this work and reconstructs …Read more