INDUCTIVE METAPHYSICS
  • Subprojects 2017-2020
    • A1: The Research Programme of Inductive Metaphysics from Gustav Theodor Fechner to Erich Becher and beyond
    • A2: Creative Abductive Inference and Its Role for Inductive Metaphysics in Comparison to Other Metaphysical Methods
    • A4: Kant and Inductive Methods in 18th Century Metaphysics
    • B1: Modality in Physics and in Metaphysics
    • B2: Properties and Property Individuation
    • B4: Determinism, Control, and the Consequence Argument
    • B5: Statistical Causation, Intervention, and Freedom
  • Subprojects 2020-2023
    • A1: Inductive Metaphysics and Logical Empiricism
    • A2: Creative Abductive Inference and its Role for Inductive Metaphysics
    • A4: Inductive Methods in Kant and Neo-Kantianism
    • B6: The Role of Inference to the best explanation in the discovery of Gravitational Waves
    • B7: Graded Causation
    • B8: The Time of science and the time of our lives
    • B9: Complex biological dispositions: a case study in the metaphysics of biological practice
    • B10: Metaphysics of Evolution: justification and ontology of generalized evolution theory
    • B11: Abductive Methodology in the philosophy of logic
  • Events
    • Abduction in Philosophy of Mind
    • Mental Disorders and Modal Properties
    • Inductive Metaphysics: Insights, Challenges and Prospects
    • Non-Reductionism in the Metaphysics of Mind
    • Essences, Dispositions and Laws in Kant
    • The Methodology of Logic: Abductivist and Non-abductivist Approaches
    • Grounding and the Direction of Explanation
    • Wochenendseminar zur Philosophie der Physik
    • Dispositions in the Life-Sciences Contemporary and Historical Perspectives
    • New Work on Induction and Abduction
    • Compatibilist Libertarianism: Advantages and Challenges
    • Metaphysics as Modelling. Contemporary and Kantian Issues
    • Laws and Explanations in Metaphysics and Science
    • Causation and Responsibility
    • Thinking About the Cultural Evolution of Thinking
    • Causal Distinctions: Specificity and Beyond
    • Free Will and Causality
    • Epistemic Engineering
    • Counterpossibles, Counternomics and Causal Theories of Properties
    • The Possibility of Metaphysics
    • Abduction and Modelling in Metaphysics
    • Kant's Concepts of Metaphysics
    • Freedom and Determinism
    • What Do We Do When We Do Metaphysics?
    • Properties and Laws in the Light of Inductive Metaphysics
    • Free Will and Laws of Nature
    • Traditional and Inductive Metaphysics
    • Spacetime: Fundamental or Emergent?
  • People
  • Research
    • Publications
    • Talks
  • Contact

Inductive Methods in Kant and Neo-Kantianism

PI: Prof. Dr. Kristina Engelhard (Trier)
Dr. Lorenzo Spagnesi (Trier)
Associated: Em. Prof. Dr. Dr. Brigitte Falkenburg (Dortmund)

In its second phase, project A4 "Inductive Methods in Kant and Neo-Kantianism" investigates the historical background of the later programmes of Inductive Metaphysics (IM) from a systematic point of view, focusing on Kant’s critical philosophy and its reception in Neo-Kantianism. Neo-Kantianism is the most important bridge between Kant and contemporary IM. Contrary to most influential 19th and 20th century views about Kant’s critical philosophy of nature,we claim that it was not only based on a priori methods, but also on empirical assumptions. In addition, we claim that the philosophy of the Marburg and the Southwest schools of Neo-Kantianism inherit this feature, resulting in a tension between a priori conceptions and the historical dimension of science.
Part Iof the project is concerned with Inductive Metaphysics in Kant’s critical theory of nature. We will examine the role of analogical reasoning as an inductive method in Kant’s critical philosophy and develop an interpretation of Kant’s Metaphysical Foundations of Natural Science (MFNS) (1786) as a work that is to a considerable degree an exercise in Inductive Metaphysics, in contrast to the common portrayal of Kant’s work.
Part II concentrates on two specific doctrines in Kant that are systematically relevant for Inductive Metaphysics. First, we interpret the transcendental ideas as models, focusing on their regulative use as outlined in the Transcendental Dialectic of the Critique of Pure Reason (CpR) and applied in the MFNS. Hence,wewill show that Kant’s metaphysics of nature can in part be understood as a modelling view of metaphysics. Second, we argue that his theory of the principles of the regulative use of the transcendental ideas should be taken as an account of theory choice criteria, which are relevant in IBEs.
Part III investigates the elements of Inductive Metaphysics in the Neo-Kantian tradition, focusing on the systematization of the natural and cultural sciences in the Southwest school and the systematic philosophy of the Marburg school. Within the research unit, the project has the overall objective of clarifying the following questions: How does Kant’s critique and modification of the concept and aims of metaphysics in his doctrine as well as his practice of metaphysics relate to the logical empiricists? In which way does Kant’s explicitly modified programme and his practice of metaphysics contribute to an adequate present-day understanding of IM? Does IM result in a modified picture of the aims and scope of metaphysics from a Kantian perspective? How significant is the Neo-Kantianimpact on IM?
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  • Subprojects 2017-2020
    • A1: The Research Programme of Inductive Metaphysics from Gustav Theodor Fechner to Erich Becher and beyond
    • A2: Creative Abductive Inference and Its Role for Inductive Metaphysics in Comparison to Other Metaphysical Methods
    • A4: Kant and Inductive Methods in 18th Century Metaphysics
    • B1: Modality in Physics and in Metaphysics
    • B2: Properties and Property Individuation
    • B4: Determinism, Control, and the Consequence Argument
    • B5: Statistical Causation, Intervention, and Freedom
  • Subprojects 2020-2023
    • A1: Inductive Metaphysics and Logical Empiricism
    • A2: Creative Abductive Inference and its Role for Inductive Metaphysics
    • A4: Inductive Methods in Kant and Neo-Kantianism
    • B6: The Role of Inference to the best explanation in the discovery of Gravitational Waves
    • B7: Graded Causation
    • B8: The Time of science and the time of our lives
    • B9: Complex biological dispositions: a case study in the metaphysics of biological practice
    • B10: Metaphysics of Evolution: justification and ontology of generalized evolution theory
    • B11: Abductive Methodology in the philosophy of logic
  • Events
    • Abduction in Philosophy of Mind
    • Mental Disorders and Modal Properties
    • Inductive Metaphysics: Insights, Challenges and Prospects
    • Non-Reductionism in the Metaphysics of Mind
    • Essences, Dispositions and Laws in Kant
    • The Methodology of Logic: Abductivist and Non-abductivist Approaches
    • Grounding and the Direction of Explanation
    • Wochenendseminar zur Philosophie der Physik
    • Dispositions in the Life-Sciences Contemporary and Historical Perspectives
    • New Work on Induction and Abduction
    • Compatibilist Libertarianism: Advantages and Challenges
    • Metaphysics as Modelling. Contemporary and Kantian Issues
    • Laws and Explanations in Metaphysics and Science
    • Causation and Responsibility
    • Thinking About the Cultural Evolution of Thinking
    • Causal Distinctions: Specificity and Beyond
    • Free Will and Causality
    • Epistemic Engineering
    • Counterpossibles, Counternomics and Causal Theories of Properties
    • The Possibility of Metaphysics
    • Abduction and Modelling in Metaphysics
    • Kant's Concepts of Metaphysics
    • Freedom and Determinism
    • What Do We Do When We Do Metaphysics?
    • Properties and Laws in the Light of Inductive Metaphysics
    • Free Will and Laws of Nature
    • Traditional and Inductive Metaphysics
    • Spacetime: Fundamental or Emergent?
  • People
  • Research
    • Publications
    • Talks
  • Contact