Some philosophers, just prior to Kant, set the agenda for the classical “mind and body” (or “soul and body”) problem, i.e., the study of cognition which today is investigated as a “brain and mind” problem in experimental psychology.
Kant was introduced by his professor, Martin Knutzen (1714-51), to a wide range of material, including the Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy (or Principia) by Sir Isaac Newton (1642.1727).
Newton defined a new science of dynamics and mechanics, concerned with the forces that hold the universe together. Newton´s principal contributions to science were to envisage interactions betwen particles other than solely through contact, and to give force a central role in the theory of matter, linking it directly with gravity.
Inevitably, Newton´s theories reopened questions of casuality. However, Newton himself countered the idea of self-generating universe; by holding that gravitation was due to the direct action of God Himself.
Elsewhere in Europe, religion was under pressure from science. The Swedish botanist Carolus Linnaeus (1707-78) provided a new classification of plants built upon their sexuality (Systema Naturae, 1735),
Linnaeus´ views were challenged by the naturalist Georges-Lous Leclerc, Comte de Buffon (1707-88) in his vas Histoire Naturelle (1749-67). Buffon argued that classifications were merely heuristic devices incapable of revealing the “real” structure of nature.
Buffon came close to the idea that species could change over time- a theory which foreshadows Darwin´s evolutionism. These views, and his implicit support for the idea that man was intrinsically within the natural order, led to condemnations by the theology faculty of Paris in 1749.
Philosophers at this time regarded themselves as what we would now call “scientists”. Our current distinction between philosophy and “science” did not yet exist. Even the “empirical” David Hume (1711-76) defined his moral philosophy as the “science of human nature”. Hume saw his philosophy as analogous to the physical inquiries of Isaac Newton.
Other contemporary philosophers, such as Denis Diderot (1713-84), co-editor of the monumental Encyclopédie (1751-72), applied themselves to the “nature” of life itself. For Diderot “we produced a picture of “life” as the constitutive force of nature, an impulsion within living beings themselves to survive, to reproduce, and to obey the laws of their own existence. Just as science unsettled transcendental views, so problems appeared in metaphysics itself”.
“I have had the fate to be in love with metaphysics”, wrote Kant in 1776, “although I can hardly flatter myself to have received favours from her”. This unrequited love of metaphysics provided the leitmotif and underlying drama of Kant´s whole carrer.
Kant was introduced by his professor, Martin Knutzen (1714-51), to a wide range of material, including the Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy (or Principia) by Sir Isaac Newton (1642.1727).
Newton defined a new science of dynamics and mechanics, concerned with the forces that hold the universe together. Newton´s principal contributions to science were to envisage interactions betwen particles other than solely through contact, and to give force a central role in the theory of matter, linking it directly with gravity.
Inevitably, Newton´s theories reopened questions of casuality. However, Newton himself countered the idea of self-generating universe; by holding that gravitation was due to the direct action of God Himself.
Elsewhere in Europe, religion was under pressure from science. The Swedish botanist Carolus Linnaeus (1707-78) provided a new classification of plants built upon their sexuality (Systema Naturae, 1735),
Linnaeus´ views were challenged by the naturalist Georges-Lous Leclerc, Comte de Buffon (1707-88) in his vas Histoire Naturelle (1749-67). Buffon argued that classifications were merely heuristic devices incapable of revealing the “real” structure of nature.
Buffon came close to the idea that species could change over time- a theory which foreshadows Darwin´s evolutionism. These views, and his implicit support for the idea that man was intrinsically within the natural order, led to condemnations by the theology faculty of Paris in 1749.
Philosophers at this time regarded themselves as what we would now call “scientists”. Our current distinction between philosophy and “science” did not yet exist. Even the “empirical” David Hume (1711-76) defined his moral philosophy as the “science of human nature”. Hume saw his philosophy as analogous to the physical inquiries of Isaac Newton.
Other contemporary philosophers, such as Denis Diderot (1713-84), co-editor of the monumental Encyclopédie (1751-72), applied themselves to the “nature” of life itself. For Diderot “we produced a picture of “life” as the constitutive force of nature, an impulsion within living beings themselves to survive, to reproduce, and to obey the laws of their own existence. Just as science unsettled transcendental views, so problems appeared in metaphysics itself”.
“I have had the fate to be in love with metaphysics”, wrote Kant in 1776, “although I can hardly flatter myself to have received favours from her”. This unrequited love of metaphysics provided the leitmotif and underlying drama of Kant´s whole carrer.
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