The Methodological Prescriptions of the "Appendix to the Transcendental Dialectic" of Kant's "Critique of Pure Reason" and the Foundations of Improper Science

In the Preface to his "Metaphysical Foundations of Natural Science", Kant holds that empirical disciplines, such as -at least- chemistry, are ´improper´ natural sciences. What he has primarily in mind is the phlogistic chemistry mainly developed by Georg Stahl. Contrary to mathematical phy...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autor: Arias, Martin
Tipo de recurso: artículo
Estado:Versión publicada
Fecha de publicación:2017
País:Argentina
Institución:Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas
Repositorio:CONICET Digital (CONICET)
Idioma:inglés
OAI Identifier:oai:ri.conicet.gov.ar:11336/75839
Acceso en línea:http://hdl.handle.net/11336/75839
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palabra clave:KANT
"IMPROPER" SCIENCE
LAWS
FOUNDATION
REGULATIVE
https://purl.org/becyt/ford/6.3
https://purl.org/becyt/ford/6
Descripción
Sumario:In the Preface to his "Metaphysical Foundations of Natural Science", Kant holds that empirical disciplines, such as -at least- chemistry, are ´improper´ natural sciences. What he has primarily in mind is the phlogistic chemistry mainly developed by Georg Stahl. Contrary to mathematical physics, phlogistic chemistry is not a ´proper´ natural science because it lacks a metaphysical pure part and mathematics cannot be adequately applied to its domain. The aim of this article is to show that the scientific character of improper sciences, such as –at least– phlogistic chemistry, depends on the application of two methodological prescriptions demanded by the regulative function of theoretical reason. These prescriptions are presented by Kant in the Appendix to the Transcendental Dialectic of his "Critique of Pure Reason". The first prescription requires the use of certain ideas of reason in empirical scientific laws. The second one consists in a demand of systematicity for those laws.