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(2016) Space, number, and geometry from Helmholtz to Cassirer, Dordrecht, Springer.
Hermann von Helmholtz developed epistemological views in connection with his contributions to various branches of science, including physics, physiology, and the inquiry into the foundations of mathematics. Helmholtz's reception of Kant goes back to his earliest epistemological considerations, and further developments are found in Helmholtz's main epistemological writings. Helmholtz's relationship to Kant was much discussed at the time and in more recent studies, arguably because Helmholtz formulated both compelling objections to Kant and rejoinders to those objections within the framework of Kant's transcendental philosophy. It might seem that Helmholtz may help to address the question which aspects of Kant's philosophy are in agreement with later scientific developments, including non-Euclidean geometry, and which ones ought to be refurbished or even rejected by someone who is willing to take such developments into consideration. In order to highlight this question, this chapter provides an overview of Helmholtz's remarks on Kant regarding the law of causality, the theory of spatial perception, and the conception of space and time.
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Full citation:
Biagioli, F. (2016). Helmholtz's relationship to Kant, in Space, number, and geometry from Helmholtz to Cassirer, Dordrecht, Springer, pp. 1-21.
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