Kant's later writings on physics, collected in the Opus postumum, project a theory of body-formation similar to the wave mechanics proposed by Schroedinger over a century later. Kant's theory, when refined by modern wave mechanics, implies a reconstruction of both, the general doctrine of understanding in the Critique of Pure Reason and the doctrine of inorganic nature in the Metaphysical Foundations of Natural Science. / As a whole, the Metaphysical Foundations was not successful, notwithstanding the basic plausibility of its architectonic and the cogency of certain critiques of Newtonian physics--the critiques, for example, of atomism and absolute space. It did not clearly show physics to be a mode of thought which exhibits the basic features of understanding as such. This defect can be remedied through the metaphysical articulation of a physics of body-formation. Such an articulation will amount to a reconstruction of the Metaphysical Foundations as an ontology of inorganic nature, and it will demonstrate wave mechanics to be a genuinely intelligible mode of interpretation. / Chapter I of the dissertation determines the essential features of modern wave mechanics. Although further elaboration and confirmation of my thesis will require a treatment of Dirac's revision of wave mechanics, Schroedinger's work is considered representative. / In Chapter II the physics of Kant's Opus postumum is investigated in some detail. Its basic compatibility with the Critical doctrine of synthesis and with Schroedinger's wave mechanics is affirmed. / Chapter III examines in more detail the similarity between Kant's wave mechanics and Schroedinger's wave mechanics. / Chapter IV is devoted to a study of recent literature on Kant's physics. I argue here that the Metaphysical Foundations and the physics of the Opus postumum constitute a unitary, though incomplete, doctrine of physics which tends to agree--and, when refined by modern physics, does agree--with the synthetic nature of our understanding. / In Chapter V I criticize the Uebergang-doctrine of the Opus postumum insofar as it is construed by Kant as a doctrine of schematic mediation between the Metaphysical Foundations and physics proper, and I outline a plan for the reconstruction of the Metaphysical Foundations. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 44-02, Section: A, page: 0513. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1983.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:fsu.edu/oai:fsu.digital.flvc.org:fsu_75048 |
| Contributors | MCCALL, JAMES LEROY., Florida State University |
| Source Sets | Florida State University |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Text |
| Format | 279 p. |
| Rights | On campus use only. |
| Relation | Dissertation Abstracts International |
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