What Mathematics and Metaphysics of Corporeal Nature Offer to Each Other: Kant on the Foundations of Natural Science

Abstract

Kant famously distinguishes between the methods of mathematics and of metaphysics, holding that metaphysicians err when they avail themselves of the mathematical method. Nonetheless, in the Metaphysical Foundations of Natural Science, he insists that mathematics and metaphysics must jointly ground ‘proper natural science’. This article examines the distinctive contributions and unity of mathematics and metaphysics to the foundations of the science of body. I argue that the two are distinct insofar as they involve distinctive sorts of grounding relations – mathematics pertains to formal grounding, while metaphysics concerns material grounding – while they are unified insofar as they treat motion, the fundamental determination of the science of body.

Kant’s Ongoing Relevance for Philosophy of Science

“…While we have not addressed the relevance of Kant’s philosophy to developments in other scientific fields, such as chemistry and physics, we hope that this special issue, taken as a whole, will open new paths for Kant scholarship in a wider range of areas. Such areas include the normative foundation of cosmopolitan rights (Massimi 2023), the necessity of empirical laws (Spagnesi 2023), the role of a priori principles in scientific reasoning (Vaccarino Bremner 2023), mereology and biological individuality (Wilks 2023) and the possibility of a proper natural science of corporeal nature (McNulty 2023).…”