Naslov
With Bošković against Kant: Ivan Krstitelj Horvath on space and time

Autori
Martinović, Ivica

Vrsta, podvrsta i kategorija rada
Sažeci sa skupova, sažetak, znanstveni

Izvornik
14th Congress of Logic, Methodology and Philosophy of Science: Volume of Abstracts / Congress Secretariat (eds) - Nancy : Division of Logic, Methodology and Philosophy of Science of the International Union of History and Philosophy of Science, 2011, 156-156

Skup
B3. Historical aspects in the Philosophy of Science

Mjesto i datum
Nancy, Francuska, 19.07.2011. - 28.07.2011

Vrsta sudjelovanja
Predavanje

Vrsta recenzije
Međunarodna recenzija

Ključne riječi
Ruđer Bošković; Kant; Ivan Krstitelj Horvath; prostor; vrijeme

Sažetak
(short abstract) In 1797, Ivan Krstitelj Horvath published his book against Kant’s Kritik der reinen Vernunft under the title Declaratio infirmitatis fundamentorum operis Kantiani ‘Critik der reinen Vernunft’. It was originally conceived as a supplement to his university textbook Institutiones metaphysicae (1767). Horvath targeted his criticism at the foundations of Kant’s first Kritik, among which he expectedly included Kant’s doctrine of space and time. He was convinced that Kant’s argument »Der Raum wird als eine unendliche gegebene Größe vorgestellt.« (A 25, B 39) may be successfully refuted by using Bošković’s arguments expounded in De spatio ac tempore (1755). (long abstract) In 1797, Ivan Krstitelj Horvath, the professor emeritus of the University of Pest, published his book against Kant’s Kritik der reinen Vernunft under the title Declaratio infirmitatis fundamentorum operis Kantiani ‘Critik der reinen Vernunft’. It was originally conceived as a supplement to his university textbook Institutiones metaphysicae, which he as a Jesuit and professor at the University of Tyrnau first published in 1767. Horvath based his assessment on the first edition of Kant’s Critique of Pure Reason, although he also consulted its second, revised edition before sending the manuscript to print, so that Kant’s important quotations are provided with the pagination of the first and second edition of the Critique. Although aimed to refute Kant systematically, on the pages of his book Horvath repeatedly drew the reader’s attention to the novelty of Kant’s thought: a fundamentally new philosophical language, new terms, new meanings given to old terms, new approach in the elaboration of the operations of our mind, new doctrine of space and time, new philosophical system (novum Systema philosophicum). Horvath targeted his criticism at the foundations of Kant’s Critique, among which he expectedly included Kant’s doctrine of space and time. In his first attempt to refute Kant’s views on space and time (pp. 17-30), Bošković was not explicitly mentioned. But when, in a second attempt, in the chapter »Examinatur Kantiana de spatio et tempore doctrina« (pp. 90-133), Horvath systematically confronted Kant’s arguments on space, he was convinced that Kant’s argument »Der Raum wird als eine unendliche gegebene Größe vorgestellt.« (A 25, B 39) may be successfully refuted by using Bošković’s arguments expounded in De spatio ac tempore (1755), later included as the supplement to his masterpiece Theoria philosophiae naturalis (1758, 1759, 1763). »In the Newton-Bošković system (I myself have adopted)«, he stated, Bošković’s two theses are validly proved: 1. prime elements of bodies are to be simple and unextended, on account of which they are usually called points of matter (materiae puncta) ; 2. these elements of bodies cannot come to the very mathematical contact, but with the help of attractive and repulsive forces are to be connected in such a way that at a certain exiguous distance they repel one another. Horvath had an additional reason to refer to Bošković in his criticism of Kant’s doctrine of space and time. In his textbook Institutiones metaphysicae, in the chapter »Dissertatio altera complectens cosmologia«, he expounded three of Bošković’s doctrines: 1. on prime elements of bodies as simple and unextended points of matter ; 2. on space and time as two real modi existendi ; 3. on attractive and repulsive forces dependent on the distance between points of matter. In the revised edition (editio novissima) of the textbook Institutiones metaphysicae (1782) Horvath left out the chapter on Bošković’s attractive and repulsive forces, yet he continued to follow all the three doctrines—the very doctrines that, in his opinion, could help him successfully refute Kant’s views on space and time.

Izvorni jezik
Engleski

Znanstvena područja
Filozofija

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