Subject: Re: [HM] Kant and non-Euclidean geometry
From: Edwin Mares (Edwin.Mares@vuw.ac.nz)
Date: Sat Mar 11 2000 - 00:27:43 EST
I had thought it was the use of non-Euclidean geometry to describe physical
space that supposedly undermined Kant's system. Whereas it is clear that
one can interpret Kant as allowing for the existence and study of
non-Euclidean geometries, it is more difficult to show that he would allow
for physical space to have a non-Euclidean structure. After all, in Kant's
transcendental idealism physical space is the space that we intuit (it is,
in a sense the intuition itself). In this way, we can know the geometry of
physical space a priori. The question that arises, then, is the one that
occupied Ernst Cassier in his book on Einstein is how a Kantian can
understand the use of a non-Euclidean geometry in space-time physics.
Ed Mares
Edwin Mares
Head of Department
Department of Philosophy
Victoria University of Wellington
PO Box 600
Wellington, New Zealand
Ph: 64-4-471-5368
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