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4511 results in Cambridge Editions

Page 144 of 226

  • 15 - Something concerning the influence of the Moon on the weather (1794)

  • Immanuel Kant
  • Edited by Eric Watkins, University of California, San Diego
  • Book:
    Kant: Natural Science
    Published online:
    05 November 2012
    Print publication:
    04 October 2012, pp 426-433

  • Summary

    The topic of this Kant's essay is whether the Moon has any influence on the Earth's weather. The attraction of the Moon, i.e., the only motive force by which it can have an influence on the atmosphere and possibly also on weather conditions, has a direct effect on the air in accordance with laws of statics, that is, insofar as it is a ponderable fluid. It is a question of deciding a priori whether or not the Moon has any influence on the weather, then the light that it casts on the Earth can be ignored, and so there remains only its attractive force. But the Moon['s attraction] is far too weak to effect any discernible change in the level of the barometer by this means, and, insofar as weather conditions are directly dependent on the cause of change. Therefore, it ought not to have any influence on the weather.

  • 9 - New notes to explain the theory of the winds, in which, at the same time, he invites attendance at his lectures (1756)

  • Immanuel Kant
  • Edited by Eric Watkins, University of California, San Diego
  • Book:
    Kant: Natural Science
    Published online:
    05 November 2012
    Print publication:
    04 October 2012, pp 374-385

  • Summary

    Kant, over the course of five notes, attempts to explain a series of specific meteorological phenomena, sometimes in novel ways. In the first and second notes, he claims that the direction of coastal winds depends on the expansion and contraction of air that is caused by differences in the rate of heating and cooling of the land and the water at sea during the day and at night. In the third, he explains the difference in (east-west) direction arising for winds moving from the Equator. In the fourth note, he talks about the Coriolis effect, and the easterly direction of the trade winds. Finally, Kant provides an account of monsoon winds. The atmosphere should be thought of as a sea of fluid, elastic material constituted, as it were, of layers of different density, which decreases as the height increases.

  • 12 - Review of Silberschlag's work: Theory of the fireball that appeared on 23 July 1762 (1764)

  • Immanuel Kant
  • Edited by Eric Watkins, University of California, San Diego
  • Book:
    Kant: Natural Science
    Published online:
    05 November 2012
    Print publication:
    04 October 2012, pp 409-413

  • Summary

    Kant's "Review of Silberschlag's Work: Theory of the Fireball that appeared on 23 July 1762" was published anonymously on 23 March 1764. While it is uncertain exactly what motivated Kant to respond in this way, the review is clearly positive. This work consists of two main parts, the first of which treats of the atmosphere, and the second of the fireball, to which further addenda are attached with reports and observations that had come in. The first part discusses air and its changes and views the sea of air as an atmosphere and a new division of regions of air is presented in addition to the various considerable remarks about mists, fog, clouds, and rain. The second part treats of the orbit the creation and the use of this meteor in three sections. The three copper plates illustrate the theory, the shape and the path that this fire-mass took.

  • 4 - Universal natural history and theory of the heavens or essay on the constitution and the mechanical origin of the whole universe according to Newtonian principles (1755)

  • Immanuel Kant
  • Edited by Eric Watkins, University of California, San Diego
  • Book:
    Kant: Natural Science
    Published online:
    05 November 2012
    Print publication:
    04 October 2012, pp 182-308

  • Summary

    Kant's aim in the essay Universal Natural History and Theory of the Heavens shows that the main elements of the entire observable universe, laying bare the basic structure that governs the universe. Kant does this in a preparatory section and three parts. In the preface, he is primarily interested in explaining why the view he wants to defend not only represents no threat to religious orthodoxy. In the first part, Kant draws an analogy between the structure of our solar system and that of the Milky Way and then between the Milky Way and the fixed stars. The second part explains the formation of the various significant bodies in our solar system their most distinctive features. In the third part, Kant concludes his treatment by engaging in fanciful speculation about the inhabitants of the other planets of our solar system, and returns to the theological context.

  • 7 - History and natural description of the most noteworthy occurrences of the earthquake that struck a large part of the Earth at the end of the year 1755 (1756)

  • Immanuel Kant
  • Edited by Eric Watkins, University of California, San Diego
  • Book:
    Kant: Natural Science
    Published online:
    05 November 2012
    Print publication:
    04 October 2012, pp 337-364

  • Summary

    In this essay, Kant presents a description of the Lisbon earthquake and the events surrounding it. The earthquake was preceded by a vapour rising into the air that turned red in the atmosphere and made the torrential rains that ensued blood-red as well. Kant describes the tsunami caused by the earthquake, its effects in distant places, its speed of transmission and extent as well as its influence on springs. He theorizes about what geographical features are most conducive to earthquakes and the directions of motion of an earthquake, speculating the connection between earthquakes and the seasons and the influence of earthquakes on atmospheric conditions as well as their potential uses. Kant concludes with a sketch of a theodicy, according to which man often inappropriately views himself rather than nature as a whole as the object of God's actions, and in addition, man is in no position to know God's intentions.

  • 3 - The question, whether the Earth is ageing, considered from a physical point of view (1754)

  • Immanuel Kant
  • Edited by Eric Watkins, University of California, San Diego
  • Book:
    Kant: Natural Science
    Published online:
    05 November 2012
    Print publication:
    04 October 2012, pp 165-181

  • Summary

    In this essay, Kant defines what it would mean for the earth to be ageing, warning in particular against anthropocentric conceptions. He also provides detailed evaluations of four different accounts of how the earth might be ageing and by what causal mechanisms. The first is by the rivers stripping fertile salts from the land and delivering them into the ocean, thereby robbing the land of its ability to grow and sustain life. The second is by the rivers depositing sediment into the sea, which raises the sea until it inundates the land. The third is by the decrease of water (from the oceans) and the resultant increase of land. The fourth is by the decrease and gradual exhaustion of a hypothetical general 'world spirit' that sustains all living beings on earth. He concludes by criticizing those who would appeal to comets to explain "all manner of extraordinary" events.

  • 6 - On the causes of earthquakes on the occasion of the calamity that befell the western countries of Europe towards the end of last year (1756)

  • Immanuel Kant
  • Edited by Eric Watkins, University of California, San Diego
  • Book:
    Kant: Natural Science
    Published online:
    05 November 2012
    Print publication:
    04 October 2012, pp 327-336

  • Summary

    Kant published the first essay, "On the causes of earthquakes on the occasion of the calamity that befell the western countries of Europe towards the end of last year", in two instalments. His main contention is that earthquakes are caused by the conflagration of a mixture of iron filings, sulphur, or vitriolic acid, and water that has been compressed in extensive caverns lying below the Earth's surface. He argues that earthquakes are connected with volcanic activity, which have the same cause; and denies that they are caused by electricity, but allows for a connection with magnetic materials and atmospheric changes. According to Kant, the main line of earthquakes follows the direction of the highest mountains, and thus the countries that are chiefly affected are close to these, especially if they are enclosed by two mountain ranges, in which case the tremors combine from both sides.

  • 16 - Physical geography (1802)

  • Immanuel Kant
  • Edited by Eric Watkins, University of California, San Diego
  • Book:
    Kant: Natural Science
    Published online:
    05 November 2012
    Print publication:
    04 October 2012, pp 434-679

  • Summary

    Among Kant's publications, Physical Geography has a complex origin. It is a compilation of a variety of sources such as notes that Kant made for himself and updated only sporadically, student transcripts from different classes over several decades, and Rink's independent additions. Two further features of Kant's Physical Geography that need mention. First, Kant's contributions to physical geography can be assessed only against the background of the current state of knowledge of geography in general and of physical geography in particular. Second, Kant's knowledge of different geographical facts derives not from first-hand experience, given that he never travelled far from Konigsberg and thus never ventured outside the boundaries of East Prussia, but exclusively from the reports of others. Particularly the parts of the present work describing nature or dealing with natural history would require an almost complete revision.

  • Editor's preface

  • Immanuel Kant
  • Edited by Eric Watkins, University of California, San Diego
  • Book:
    Kant: Natural Science
    Published online:
    05 November 2012
    Print publication:
    04 October 2012, pp x-xii

  • Summary

    The present volume in the Cambridge Edition of the Works of Immanuel Kant in Translation contains sixteen works that Kant published in natural science, broadly construed, over a fifty-six-year period that span his entire career, from his first publication in 1746 to one of the last works published under his name while he was still alive in 1802. All of the works, except one, Kant's Latin dissertation on fire, were translated especially for this volume. They vary considerably in their character and length, ranging from the brief notice on Lambert's correspondence, which was essentially a short advertisement for one of Lambert's volumes that had just been published, to the two-volume Physical Geography, which contains a comprehensive and at times extremely detailed description of many of the physical features of the Earth, and its animals, as these were understood in East Prussia in the second half of the eighteenth century.

    Two works in particular, beyond the Physical Geography, deserve special mention here. Kant's Thoughts on the True Estimation of Living Forces, his first publication, and his Universal Natural History and Theory of the Heavens, published in 1755, are both major books that tackle central issues of the day and are meant to be important contributions to natural science. The former attempts to develop a novel solution to the vis viva controversy, which raged in Europe for several decades and engaged many of the leading thinkers, while the latter attempts to articulate a broadly Newtonian cosmogony in original ways. While neither work was especially influential during Kant's own lifetime (for different reasons), both are significant works that form central components of Kant's early thought. For this reason alone they both deserve more attention than they have received so far; for if one is to have any hope of understanding Kant's later philosophical project and contributions, one must come to terms with the intellectual interests and projects that he pursued in his earliest years, if only to understand the points on which he changes his mind and to appreciate his reasons for doing so.

  • 5 - Succinct exposition of some meditations on fire (1755)

  • Immanuel Kant
  • Edited by Eric Watkins, University of California, San Diego
  • Book:
    Kant: Natural Science
    Published online:
    05 November 2012
    Print publication:
    04 October 2012, pp 309-326

  • Summary

    Kant's essay "Succinct Exposition of Some Meditations on Fire" is divided into two sections. The first section argues that various phenomena pertaining to the solidity and fluidity of bodies can be explained only by positing an elastic matter. The second section explains how the elastic matter of fire, which is compressed into the interstices of larger bodies, can be used to account for phenomena involving vapors, air, and flame, as well as the proper way to measure heat. The elastic matter of the first section is also identified here with both the matter of fire and the matter of light, or the ether. While Kant accounts for the selective range of natural phenomena by positing a small number of forces and entities, he demonstrates his familiarity with many leading contributors to the debate about the nature of fire, such as Newton, Euler, and other natural philosophers.

  • 13 - Notice of Lambert's correspondence (1782)

  • Immanuel Kant
  • Edited by Eric Watkins, University of California, San Diego
  • Book:
    Kant: Natural Science
    Published online:
    05 November 2012
    Print publication:
    04 October 2012, pp 414-417

  • Summary

    This advertisement of the publication of Johann Heinrich Lambert's correspondence appeared on 4 February 1782. In a second notice, Herr Bernoulli announced that the first part of the correspondence is to be followed by the first volume of philosophical and philological treatises and the second volume of the correspondence then towards the end of March 1783. The second volume was of the philosophical treatises and the third and fourth were on the correspondence. His acuteness in discriminating what is deficient in all sciences, in thinking up masterful proposals and experiments to complete them, his project of transforming the decadent taste of the age can perhaps contribute more forcefully than anything else to breathe new life into the nearly extinguished zeal of scholars for the dissemination of useful and thorough science, and induce them to establish a confederation that works against the prevailing barbarism.

  • General introduction

  • Immanuel Kant
  • Edited by Eric Watkins, University of California, San Diego
  • Book:
    Kant: Natural Science
    Published online:
    05 November 2012
    Print publication:
    04 October 2012, pp xiii-xviii

  • Summary

    This volume will come as something of a surprise to someone accustomed to thinking of Kant as a prime example of an armchair philosopher. For although it is true that he never travelled far beyond Königsberg and is famous for having emphasized (synthetic) a priori cognition, that is, (substantive) cognition of the world that can be obtained independently of any particular sensory experiences, Kant wrote extensively throughout his career on a broad range of topics that we today would consider part of natural science. It is not uncommon to recognize that Kant produced important publications that bear on natural science in some way, publications that find a home in other volumes in the Cambridge Edition of the Works of Immanuel Kant. For example, Kant’s relatively brief Physical Monadology (1756) appears as part of Theoretical Philosophy, 1755–1770. The more substantial Metaphysical Foundations of Natural Science (1786), which attempts to show how the abstract principles argued for in the Critique of Pure Reason can be realized in more specific principles by having an empirical concept of matter applied to them, can be found in Theoretical Philosophy after 1781. And the remarks Kant composed late in his career (in the 1790s and beyond) on the transition from the principles established in the Metaphysical Foundations of Natural Science to empirical natural science are available in the Opus postumum. However, even an awareness of these important works still falls short of an acknowledgement of the breadth and depth of Kant’s interests in natural science. For one, Kant writes on an even wider range of specific topics in the domain of natural science, such as the causes of earthquakes, the nature of fire, the rotation and ageing of the Earth, theories concerning moisture in winds, and the appearance and nature of comets and other meteorological phenomena. For another, he is not content to provide brief interventions on narrowly defined scientific questions, but also undertakes foundational and comprehensive projects in natural science, such as determining the conservation of force in nature, formulating the proper laws of motion, developing a full-scale Newtonian cosmogony, and offering an expansive physical geography.

  • 14 - On the volcanoes on the Moon (1785)

  • Immanuel Kant
  • Edited by Eric Watkins, University of California, San Diego
  • Book:
    Kant: Natural Science
    Published online:
    05 November 2012
    Print publication:
    04 October 2012, pp 418-425

  • Summary

    The occasion for Kant's essay was Aepinus's claim that Herschel's 'discovery' of volcanic activity on the Moon supported his view that volcanic activity could be invoked to explain the irregularities on its surface. Kant wants to maintain that the Moon, like the Earth and the other planets in the solar system, was formed from chaotic, gaseous material that gradually lost heat on the surface and solidified, albeit with irregular crevices. The primary novelty of Kant's explanation here, compared to what he offered thirty years earlier, is his adoption of Crawford's theory of heat. Thus, we have on Earth two kinds of crater-like land-forms: one, of volcanic origin [of the order of] 160 roods in diameter and thus about 20,000 square roods in area; others that are definitely not volcanic and are about 1000 square miles, that is 200,000 times greater in area.

Page 144 of 226