Motion as a Concept, an Insufficient Element in the Kantian Philosophy

Axiomathes 32 (1):63-82 (2022)
  Copy   BIBTEX

Abstract

This article examines the Kantian ideas on motion in his work Metaphysical Foundations of Natural Science. In that essay, Kant holds that motion as a concept—from its connotation as elemental and fundamental predicament of the material reality—mobilises in matter all the characteristics of its essence as a property. Nevertheless conceiving motion as a concept does not enable us to confirm the existence of motion itself in the natural world because ‘the possibility of specific natural things can’t be discovered from their mere concepts.’. Therefore, the concept of movement does not evidence the existence of the movement or its characteristics and properties. Such claim would imply that motion as a concept is not evidence of the existence of motion as such and, therefore, the properties of matter cannot be mobilised based on that concept because they are characteristics of the essence of motion. Then, how does Kant intend to denote motion? Why pretend to explain matter form the concept of motion if a pure concept is, by definition, independent of the data obtained from the sensibility?. Therefore, we will demonstrate that such weakness is the breaking point of the Kantian concept of motion in his “dynamic-metaphysical” model.

Other Versions

No versions found

Links

PhilArchive



    Upload a copy of this work     Papers currently archived: 100,676

External links

Setup an account with your affiliations in order to access resources via your University's proxy server

Through your library

Similar books and articles

Kant's critical concepts of motion.Konstantin Pollok - 2006 - Journal of the History of Philosophy 44 (4):559-575.
The Medium for Motion: A Critical Clue to Understand Spacetime.Alfonso Leon Guillen Gomez - 2015 - International Journal of Modern Physics and Applications 1 (5):210-218.
Motion and the Affection Argument.Colin McLear - 2018 - Synthese 195 (11):4979-4995.
Margaret Cavendish on Motion and Mereology.Alison Peterman - 2019 - Journal of the History of Philosophy 57 (3):471-499.
The concept of transition and its role in Leibniz’s and Whitehead’s metaphysics of motion.Tamar Levanon - 2011 - Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part A 42 (2):352-361.

Analytics

Added to PP
2020-09-17

Downloads
27 (#820,541)

6 months
10 (#394,677)

Historical graph of downloads
How can I increase my downloads?

Author Profiles

Citations of this work

No citations found.

Add more citations

References found in this work

Metaphysical Foundations of Natural Science.Immanuel Kant - 1970 - New York: Cambridge University Press. Edited by Michael Friedman.
Kant, non-conceptual content and the representation of space.Lucy Allais - 2009 - Journal of the History of Philosophy 47 (3):pp. 383-413.
Kant and nonconceptual content.Robert Hanna - 2005 - European Journal of Philosophy 13 (2):247-290.
¿Ontología u Ontologías?Paulo Vélez León - 2015 - Disputatio. Philosophical Research Bulletin 4 (5):299-339.

View all 18 references / Add more references