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15Immediacy of Attraction and Equality of Interaction in Kant’s “Dynamics”In Marius Stan & Christopher Smeenk (eds.), Theory, Evidence, Data: Themes from George E. Smith, Springer. pp. 281-305. 2023.Kant’s Metaphysical Foundations of Natural Science (MFNS), published in 1786, has proved difficult to situate in the context of eighteenth-century responses to Newton. One point beyond dispute is that Kant is not satisfied with the “metaphysical foundations” thus far proffered by Newton and his followers. He echoes some familiar Leibnizian criticisms (such as those concerning absolute space) and, in a passage we will examine closely, insists that rejecting “the concept of an original attraction”…Read more
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21Kant’s Mathematical World, by Daniel SutherlandMind. forthcoming.Kant’s Mathematical World (KMW) is a strikingly original, richly detailed account of Kant’s philosophy of mathematics as a reckoning with the long-held understa.
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169Kant and Strawson on the Content of Geometrical ConceptsNoûs 46 (1): 86-126. 2012.This paper considers Kant's understanding of conceptual representation in light of his view of geometry.
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12Kant's Transcendental Deduction by Alison Laywine (review)Journal of the History of Philosophy 61 (1): 162-164. 2023.In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:Reviewed by:Kant's Transcendental Deduction by Alison LaywineKatherine DunlopAlison Laywine. Kant's Transcendental Deduction. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2020. Pp. iv + 318. Hardback, $80.00.Alison Laywine's contribution to the rich literature on Kant's "Transcendental Deduction of the Categories" stands out for the novelty of its approach and conclusions. Laywine's declared "strategy" is "to compare and contrast" the Deduction …Read more
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12Interrupting Kant’s Dogmatic SlumberCon-Textos Kantianos 16 262-265. 2022._Review of: Anderson, Abraham, _Kant, Hume, and the Interruption of Dogmatic Slumber_, New York, Oxford University Press, 2020, 180+xxii, 978-0-19-009674-8_.
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13Eric Watkins, Kant on Laws Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2019 Pp. xv + 297 ISBN 9781107163911 (hbk) £75.00Kantian Review 26 (4): 667-671. 2021.
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31Definitions and Empirical Justification in Christian Wolff’s Theory of ScienceHistory of Philosophy & Logical Analysis 21 (1): 149-176. 2018.This paper argues that in Christian Wolff’s theory of knowledge, logical regimentation does not take the place of experiential justification, but serves to facilitate the application of empirical information and clearly exhibit its warrant. My argument targets rationalistic interpretations such as R. Lanier Anderson’s. It is common ground in this dispute that making concepts “distinct” issues in the premises on which all deductive justification rests. Against the view that concepts are made dist…Read more
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347Burge, Tyler (1946-)Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy. 2018.Tyler Burge is an American philosopher whose body of work spans several areas of theoretical philosophy in the analytic tradition. While Burge has made important contributions to the philosophy of language and logic, he is most renowned for his work in philosophy of mind and epistemology. In particular, he is known for articulating and developing a view he labels ‘anti-individualism.’ In his later work, Burge connects his views with state-of-the-art scientific theory. Despite this emphasis on …Read more
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53The origins and “possibility” of concepts in Wolff and Kant: Comments on Nicholas Stang, Kant's Modal MetaphysicsEuropean Journal of Philosophy 26 (3): 1134-1140. 2018.
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67Poincaré on the Foundations of Arithmetic and Geometry. Part 2: Intuition and Unity in MathematicsHopos: The Journal of the International Society for the History of Philosophy of Science 7 (1): 88-107. 2017.Part 1 of this article exposed a tension between Poincaré’s views of arithmetic and geometry and argued that it could not be resolved by taking geometry to depend on arithmetic. Part 2 aims to resolve the tension by supposing not merely that intuition’s role is to justify induction on the natural numbers but rather that it also functions to acquaint us with the unity of orders and structures and show practices to fit or harmonize with experience. I argue that in this manner, intuition serves the…Read more
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Hobbes’s Mathematical ThoughtIn Aloysius Martinich & Kinch Hoekstra (eds.), The Oxford Handbook of Hobbes, Oxford University Press. 2013.The geometrical results included in De Corpore were intended to demonstrate the power of Hobbes’s approach to philosophy and cement his standing as a mathematician. They were promptly refuted, making his geometry an object of derision. I defend Hobbes’s mathematical program by showing that it addressed important needs and that similar ideas formed the basis of Newton’s calculus. In closing, I consider how placing Hobbes’s geometrical doctrine in its historical setting can further our understandi…Read more
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26Peter Achinstein. Evidence and Method. New York: Oxford University Press, 2013. Pp. xv+177. $24.95Hopos: The Journal of the International Society for the History of Philosophy of Science 4 (2): 361-365. 2014.
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119The Role of Visual Language in Berkeley’s Account of GeneralityPhilosophy and Phenomenological Research 83 (3): 525-559. 2011.
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22Jeremy Gray, Henri Poincaré: A Scientific Biography. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press , 608 pp., $35.00 (review)Philosophy of Science 81 (3): 481-486. 2014.
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90Poincaré on the Foundations of Arithmetic and Geometry. Part 1: Against “Dependence-Hierarchy” InterpretationsHopos: The Journal of the International Society for the History of Philosophy of Science 6 (2): 274-308. 2016.The main goal of part 1 is to challenge the widely held view that Poincaré orders the sciences in a hierarchy of dependence, such that all others presuppose arithmetic. Commentators have suggested that the intuition that grounds the use of induction in arithmetic also underlies the conception of a continuum, that the consistency of geometrical axioms must be proved through arithmetical induction, and that arithmetical induction licenses the supposition that certain operations form a group. I cri…Read more
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186The unity of time's measure: Kant's reply to LockePhilosophers' Imprint 9 1-31. 2009.In a crucial passage of the second-edition Transcendental Deduction, Kant claims that the concept of motion is central to our understanding of change and temporal order. I show that this seemingly idle claim is really integral to the Deduction, understood as a replacement for Locke’s “physiological” epistemology (cf. A86-7/B119). Béatrice Longuenesse has shown that Kant’s notion of distinctively inner receptivity derives from Locke. To explain the a priori application of concepts such as success…Read more
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85Mathematical method and Newtonian science in the philosophy of Christian WolffStudies in History and Philosophy of Science Part A 44 (3): 457-469. 2013.
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39Review: Mosser, Kurt, Necessity and Possibility: The Logical Strategy of Kant's Critique of Pure Reason (review)Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews 2009 (5). 2009.
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92Arbitrary combination and the use of signs in mathematics: Kant’s 1763 Prize Essay and its Wolffian backgroundCanadian Journal of Philosophy 44 (5-6): 658-685. 2014.In his 1763 Prize Essay, Kant is thought to endorse a version of formalism on which mathematical concepts need not apply to extramental objects. Against this reading, I argue that the Prize Essay has sufficient resources to explain how the objective reference of mathematical concepts is secured. This account of mathematical concepts’ objective reference employs material from Wolffian philosophy. On my reading, Kant's 1763 view still falls short of his Critical view in that it does not explain th…Read more
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82Why Euclid’s geometry brooked no doubt: J. H. Lambert on certainty and the existence of modelsSynthese 167 (1): 33-65. 2009.J. H. Lambert proved important results of what we now think of as non-Euclidean geometries, and gave examples of surfaces satisfying their theorems. I use his philosophical views to explain why he did not think the certainty of Euclidean geometry was threatened by the development of what we regard as alternatives to it. Lambert holds that theories other than Euclid's fall prey to skeptical doubt. So despite their satisfiability, for him these theories are not equal to Euclid's in justification. …Read more
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28Niccolò Guicciardini. Isaac Newton on Mathematical Certainty and Method. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2009. Pp. 422. $55.00 (review)Hopos: The Journal of the International Society for the History of Philosophy of Science 1 (2): 359-364. 2011.
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94The mathematical form of measurement and the argument for Proposition I in Newton’s PrincipiaSynthese 186 (1): 191-229. 2012.Newton characterizes the reasoning of Principia Mathematica as geometrical. He emulates classical geometry by displaying, in diagrams, the objects of his reasoning and comparisons between them. Examination of Newton’s unpublished texts shows that Newton conceives geometry as the science of measurement. On this view, all measurement ultimately involves the literal juxtaposition—the putting-together in space—of the item to be measured with a measure, whose dimensions serve as the standard of refer…Read more
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108Isaac Newton’s Scientific Method: Turning Data into Evidence about Gravity and Cosmology by William L. HarperJournal of the History of Philosophy 51 (3): 489-491. 2013.Not a full treatment of Newton’s scientific method, this book discusses his optical research only in passing (342–43). Its subtitle better indicates its scope: it focuses narrowly on the argument for universal gravitation in Book III of the Principia. The philosophical project is to set out an “ideal of empirical success” realized by the argument. Newton claims his method is to “deduce” propositions “from phenomena.” On Harper’s interpretation Newton’s phenomena are patterns of data, which are u…Read more