Article ID: CBB010680130

Conflicting Conceptions of Construction in Kant's Philosophy of Geometry (2018)

unapi

This paper is intended as a contribution to the longstanding debate about how to understand Kant's appeal to pure intuition in his philosophical account of geometry. It proceeds by focusing on a notion that has been at the center of this debate, namely, the "construction" or "exhibition" of a concept in intuition. I claim that not only does Kant appeal to this notion in two different ways—in support of both an epistemological and a semantic thesis, each based in his broader philosophical project—but also that the demands placed on this notion by these appeals are in conflict. The tension between the epistemological and semantic appeals to construction-in-intuition can be clearly seen in geometrical proofs that proceed by reductio ad absurdum. I conclude by considering the prospects for resolving this tension in a manner consistent with Kant's broader philosophical ambitions.

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Authors & Contributors
Sutherland, Daniel
Shabel, Lisa A.
Domski, Mary
McCoy, C. D.
Halák, Jan
Giovannini, Eduardo N.
Journals
Studies in History and Philosophy of Science
Journal for General Philosophy of Science
Foundations of Science
Synthese
Perspectives on Science
HOPOS
Publishers
University of California, Los Angeles
Oxford University Press
Librairie Philosophique J. Vrin
Concepts
Philosophy of mathematics
Geometry
Mathematics
Arithmetic
Philosophy of science
Mathematics and its relationship to science
People
Kant, Immanuel
Newton, Isaac
Leibniz, Gottfried Wilhelm von
Lagrange, Joseph Louis
Cassirer, Ernst
Wolff, Christian von
Time Periods
18th century
19th century
20th century, early
17th century
Ancient
20th century
Places
Germany
England
Italy
France
Europe
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