Abstract

The book originates from an international conference held in November 2000 at the Dibner Institute for the History of Science and Technology at MIT. The main conviction of the authors is that not only the development of modern mathematics, foundations of mathematics, and mathematical logic, but also the development of modern scientific thought can be better understood as an evolution from Kant. The main reason for focusing on the nineteenth century is that this will allow us to set aside the question of whether the Kantian analysis has lost its relevance in the context of the twentieth-century scientific revolutions. The thirteen articles in the book explore "the complex and subtle tracing of the multiple intellectual transformations that have led, step by step, from Kant's original scientific situation to the new scientific problems of the twentieth century" .The articles can be grouped in five main focal points of the nineteenth-century scenario. The first three articles explore the Kantian legacy in the origin, development, and growth of Naturphilosophie, and its connection with the nineteenth-century scientific work. In more detail, Frederick Beiser argues that, contrary to a widespread opinion.