History of Philosophy | Perspectival Realism

Knowledge from a Human Point of View

This open access book explores some of the historical roots and epistemological ramifications of perspectivism. Perspectivism has recently emerged in philosophy of science as an interesting new position in the debate between scientific realism and anti-realism. But there is a lot more to perspectivism than discussions in philosophy of science so far have suggested. Perspectivism […]

Illustration by Albrecht Durer, Underweysung Der Messung

The perspectival nature of scientific representation

In this paper, I go back to Bas van Fraassen’s seminal discussion of perspectivity in the context of scientific representation. I distinguish between two possible ways of locating the perspectival nature of the representation by drawing an analogy between art and science. I highlight a tension between what I call the representationalist assumption and the […]

Absolute Space as a necessary idea. Reading Kant’s Phenomenology through perspectival lenses.

In the Metaphysical Foundations of Natural Science, General Remark to Phenomenology, Kant argued that absolute space “is therefore necessary, not as a concept of an actual object, but rather as an idea, which is to serve as a rule for considering all motion therein merely as relative” (AA 4: 560). I argue that Kantian absolute […]

Points of View. Kant on perspectival knowledge.

The aim of this paper is to cast new light on an important and often overlooked notion of perspectival knowledge arising from Kant.

What is this thing called ‘scientific knowledge?’ Kant on imaginary standpoints and the regulative role of reason

In this essay I analyse Kant’s view on the regulative role of reason, and in particular what he describes as the ‘indispensably necessary’ role of ideas qua foci imaginari in the Appendix. I review two influential readings of what has become known as the ‘transcendental illusion’ and I offer a novel reading that builds on […]

Philosophy and the Chemical Revolution after Kant

This chapter addresses some key ideas of Schelling’s philosophy of nature with two main goals in mind. First, it clarifies how in Schelling’s hands, some key aspects of Kant’s philosophy of nature were transformed into a radically new philosophy of nature. Second, the chapter sheds light on some under appreciated aspects of Schelling’s philosophy of […]