Physics and Metaphysics

Abstract

Chapter 1reconstructs the systematic problems of Kant’s pre-critical reconciliation project and the unifying principles he employed in order to resolve them. His first writing, the True Estimation published in 1749, remained in the eclectic tradition of his day; but with the writings of 1755/1756 he then sought to escape from eclecticism. Together, the Theory of the Heavens, the New Elucidation, and the Physical Monadology aimed at establishing the foundations of a system of metaphysics in Wolff’s style. In view of the manifest conflict between the principles of Leibniz’s metaphysics and the foundations of Newton’s physics, this project was most ambitious. Kant faced a complex unification problem that involved various levels of theory formation, ranging from physics to metaphysics, from atoms to monads, from space, time, and matter to the principle of sufficient reason, from the assumption of divine intervention in the world to the system of pre-established harmony.