Quotes from book
Metaphysical Foundations of Natural Science

Metaphysical Foundations of Natural Science
Immanuel Kant Original title Metaphysische Anfangsgründe der Naturwissenschaft (German, 1786)

Metaphysical Foundations of Natural Science is a 1786 book by the philosopher Immanuel Kant.


Immanuel Kant photo
Immanuel Kant photo
Immanuel Kant photo
Immanuel Kant photo

“Newton… (after having remarked that geometry only requires two of the mechanical actions which it postulates, namely, to describe a straight line and a circle) says: geometry is proud of being able to achieve so much while taking so little from extraneous sources. One might say of metaphysics, on the other hand: it stands astonished, that with so much offered it by pure mathematics it can effect so little.”

In the meantime, this little is something which mathematics indispensably requires in its application to natural science, which, inasmuch as it must here necessarily borrow from metaphysics, need not be ashamed to allow itself to be seen in company with the latter.
Preface, Tr. Bax (1883) citing Isaac Newton's Principia
Metaphysical Foundations of Natural Science (1786)

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