Space, Geometry, and Kant's Transcendental Deduction of the Categories

Space, Geometry, and Kant's Transcendental Deduction of the Categories PDF Author: Thomas C. Vinci
Publisher:
ISBN: 019938116X
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 265

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Book Description
Thomas C. Vinci aims to reveal and assess the structure of Kant's argument in the Critique of Pure Reason called the "Transcendental Deduction of the Categories." At the end of the first part of the Deduction in the B-edition Kant states that his purpose is achieved: to show that all intuitions in general are subject to the categories. On the standard reading, this means that all of our mental representations, including those originating in sense-experience, are structured by conceptualization. But this reading encounters an exegetical problem: Kant states in the second part of the Deduction that a major part of what remains to be shown is that empirical intuitions are subject to the categories. How can this be if it has already been shown that intuitions in general are subject to the categories? Vinci calls this the Triviality Problem, and he argues that solving it requires denying the standard reading. In its place he proposes that intuitions in general and empirical intuitions constitute disjoint classes and that, while all intuitions for Kant are unified, there are two kinds of unification: logical unification vs. aesthetic unification. Only the former is due to the categories. A second major theme of the book is that Kant's Idealism comes in two versions-for laws of nature and for objects of empirical intuition-and that demonstrating these versions is the ultimate goal of the Deduction of the Categories and the similarly structured Deduction of the Concepts of Space, respectively. Vinci shows that the Deductions have the argument structure of an inference to the best explanation for correlated domains of explananda, each arrived at by independent applications of Kantian epistemic and geometrical methods.

Space, Geometry, and Kant's Transcendental Deduction of the Categories

Space, Geometry, and Kant's Transcendental Deduction of the Categories PDF Author: Thomas C. Vinci
Publisher:
ISBN: 019938116X
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 265

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Book Description
Thomas C. Vinci aims to reveal and assess the structure of Kant's argument in the Critique of Pure Reason called the "Transcendental Deduction of the Categories." At the end of the first part of the Deduction in the B-edition Kant states that his purpose is achieved: to show that all intuitions in general are subject to the categories. On the standard reading, this means that all of our mental representations, including those originating in sense-experience, are structured by conceptualization. But this reading encounters an exegetical problem: Kant states in the second part of the Deduction that a major part of what remains to be shown is that empirical intuitions are subject to the categories. How can this be if it has already been shown that intuitions in general are subject to the categories? Vinci calls this the Triviality Problem, and he argues that solving it requires denying the standard reading. In its place he proposes that intuitions in general and empirical intuitions constitute disjoint classes and that, while all intuitions for Kant are unified, there are two kinds of unification: logical unification vs. aesthetic unification. Only the former is due to the categories. A second major theme of the book is that Kant's Idealism comes in two versions-for laws of nature and for objects of empirical intuition-and that demonstrating these versions is the ultimate goal of the Deduction of the Categories and the similarly structured Deduction of the Concepts of Space, respectively. Vinci shows that the Deductions have the argument structure of an inference to the best explanation for correlated domains of explananda, each arrived at by independent applications of Kantian epistemic and geometrical methods.

Space, Time, and Spacetime

Space, Time, and Spacetime PDF Author: Lawrence Sklar
Publisher: Univ of California Press
ISBN: 0520340701
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 438

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Book Description
In this book, Lawrence Sklar demonstrates the interdependence of science and philosophy by examining a number of crucial problems on the nature of space and time—problems that require for their resolution the resources of philosophy and of physics. The overall issues explored are our knowledge of the geometry of the world, the existence of spacetime as an entity over and above the material objects of the world, the relation between temporal order and causal order, and the problem of the direction of time. Without neglecting the most subtle philosophical points or the most advanced contributions of contemporary physics, the author has taken pains to make his explorations intelligible to the reader with no advanced training in physics, mathematics, or philosophy. The arguments are set forth step-by-step, beginning from first principles; and the philosophical discussions are supplemented in detail by nontechnical expositions of crucial features of physical theories.

Space, Time, and Spacetime

Space, Time, and Spacetime PDF Author: Vesselin Petkov
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 3642135382
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 316

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Book Description
Dedicated to the centennial anniversary of Minkowski's discovery of spacetime, this volume contains papers, most presented at the Third International Conference on the Nature and Ontology of Spacetime, that address some of the deepest questions in physics.

Categories, Bundles and Spacetime Topology

Categories, Bundles and Spacetime Topology PDF Author: C.T. Dodson
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 9401577765
Category : Mathematics
Languages : en
Pages : 257

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Book Description
Approach your problems from the right end It isn't that they can't see the solution. It is and begin with the answers. Then one day, that they can't see the problem. perhaps you will find the final question. G. K. Chesterton. The Scandal of Father 'The Hermit Gad in Crane Feathers' in R. Brown'The point of a Pin'. van Gulik's TheChinese Maze Murders. Growing specialization and diversification have brought a host of monographs and textbooks on increasingly specialized topics. However, the "tree" of knowledge of mathematics and related fields does not grow only by putting forth new branches. It also happens, quite often in fact, that branches which were thought to be completely disparate are suddenly seen to be related. Further, the kind and level of sophistication of mathematics applied in various sciences has changed drastically in recent years: measure theory is used (non-trivially) in regional and theoretical economics; algebraic geometry interacts with physics; the Minkowsky lemma, coding theory and the structure of water meet one another in packing and covering theory; quantum fields, crystal defects and mathematical programming profit from homotopy theory; Lie algebras are relevant to filtering; and prediction and electrical engineering can use Stein spaces. And in addition to this there are such new emerging SUbdisciplines as "experimental mathematics", "CFD", "completely integrable systems", "chaos, synergetics and large-scale order", which are almost impossible to fit into the existing classification schemes. They draw upon widely different sections of mathematics.

Space, Time, Matter, and Form

Space, Time, Matter, and Form PDF Author: David Bostock
Publisher: OUP Oxford
ISBN: 9780191536847
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 212

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Book Description
Space, Time, Matter, and Form collects ten of David Bostock's essays on themes from Aristotle's Physics, four of them published here for the first time. The first five papers look at issues raised in the first two books of the Physics, centred on notions of matter and form, and the idea of substance as what persists through change. They also range over other of Aristotle's scientific works, such as his biology and psychology and the account of change in his De Generatione et Corruptione. The volume's remaining essays examine themes in later books of the Physics, including infinity, place, time, and continuity. Bostock argues that Aristotle's views on these topics are of real interest in their own right, independent of his notions of substance, form, and matter; they also raise some pressing problems of interpretation, which these essays seek to resolve.

Space, Time and Number in the Brain

Space, Time and Number in the Brain PDF Author: Elizabeth Brannon
Publisher: Academic Press
ISBN: 0123859484
Category : Mathematics
Languages : en
Pages : 375

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Book Description
The study of mathematical cognition and the ways in which the ideas of space, time and number are encoded in brain circuitry has become a fundamental issue for neuroscience. How such encoding differs across cultures and educational level is of further interest in education and neuropsychology. This rapidly expanding field of research is overdue for an interdisciplinary volume such as this, which deals with the neurological and psychological foundations of human numeric capacity. A uniquely integrative work, this volume provides a much needed compilation of primary source material to researchers from basic neuroscience, psychology, developmental science, neuroimaging, neuropsychology and theoretical biology. The first comprehensive and authoritative volume dealing with neurological and psychological foundations of mathematical cognition Uniquely integrative volume at the frontier of a rapidly expanding interdisciplinary field Features outstanding and truly international scholarship, with chapters written by leading experts in a variety of fields

Space, Time, and Self

Space, Time, and Self PDF Author: E. Norman Pearson
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Theosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 288

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Book Description


Space, Time, and Theology in the Leibniz-Newton Controversy

Space, Time, and Theology in the Leibniz-Newton Controversy PDF Author: Edward J. Khamara
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter
ISBN: 3110328305
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 178

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Book Description
In the famous Correspondence with Clarke, which took place during the last year of Leibniz’s life, Leibniz advanced several arguments purporting to refute the absolute theory of space and time that was held by Newton and his followers. The main aim of this book is to reassess Leibniz’s attack on the Newtonian theory in so far as he relied on the principle of the identity of indiscernibles. The theological side of the controversy is not ignored but isolated and discussed in the last three chapters, which deal with problems connected with the notions of omnipotence and omniscience.

Deformed Spacetime

Deformed Spacetime PDF Author: Fabio Cardone
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 1402062834
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 499

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Book Description
This volume provides a detailed discussion of the mathematical aspects and physical applications of a new geometrical structure of space-time, based on a generalization ("deformation") of the usual Minkowski space, as supposed to be endowed with a metric whose coefficients depend on the energy. This new five-dimensional scheme (Deformed Relativity in Five Dimensions, DR5) represents a true generalization of the usual Kaluza-Klein (KK) formalism.

The Models of Space, Time and Vision in V. Nabokovs Fiction

The Models of Space, Time and Vision in V. Nabokovs Fiction PDF Author: Marina Grishakova
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 340

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Book Description
Because of his rejection of socio-political engagement, Vladimir Nabokov is often regarded as a virtuouso artist of the ivory-tower variety, aloof from the contemporary march of the minds. Marina Grishakova's book, however, points to the relationship between his narrative techniques and some of the scientific, metaphysical, and ethical ideas on the inner agenda of the twentieth century. It connects Nabokov's handling of time, space, and perspective in his fiction with the philosophical models constructed by his contemporaries, also showing in what ways he may have been ahead of his time.