Conceiving Nature after Aristotle, Kant, and Hegel

The Philosopher's Guide to the Universe

Richard Dien Winfield

• Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
• Year: 2017
• Print ISBN: 9783319662800
• eBook ISBN: 9783319662817
• Topic: Philosophy
• Subtopic: Philosophical Metaphysics

This book defies the reigning dismissal of the philosophy of nature by turning to what Aristotle, Kant, and Hegel have had to say about nature and critically thinking through their arguments to reconstruct a comprehensive account of the universe. Aided by the contributions of more recent thinkers, such as Albert Einstein, Werner Heisenberg, Michael B. Foster, and Hans Jonas, Conceiving Nature shows how the mechanics of matter in motion, the physics of electromagnetism, and chemical process provide all that is needed for life to emerge and give rise to rational animals capable of knowing nature in truth. The work contains detailed discussions of much of Aristotle's writing on nature, of Kant's Metaphysical Foundations of Natural Science, and of Hegel's Philosophy of Nature.

Table of contents

• Contents
• 1 Introduction
• 2 The Presuppositions of Ancient and Modern Conceptions of Nature
• 3 How and Where to Begin Conceiving Nature: Three Fundamental Options
• 4 Space-Time and Matter
• 5 Matter and Motion
• 6 From Relative to Absolute Mechanics
• 7 Physical Process and Light
• 8 The Physical States of Matter
• 9 The Physics of Particular Qualities
• 10 From Thermodynamics to Electromagnetism
• 11 From Electricity to Chemistry
• Works Cited
• Index