The Modern Synthesis: Einstein and Kant

Friedel Weinert

The Modern Synthesis: Einstein and Kant

Article

14/2 - Fall 2009, pages 193-216

Date of online publication: 15 novembre 2009

Date of publication: 01 novembre 2009

Abstract

The paper discusses the Kantian legacy in modern views about scientific theories. The aim of this paper is to show how Einstein's philosophy of science, which was inspired by his physics, offers a specialized version of the Kantian synthesis of Empiricism and Rationalism. In modern physical theories (relativity and quantum theory) Kant's a priori conditions become “constraints,” as shown in Einstein's use of principle theories. Einstein's use of principle theories shows how constraints are used to steer the mapping of the rational onto the empirical elements of scientific theories.

Keywords

Cite this article

Weinert, Friedel. “The Modern Synthesis: Einstein and Kant.” Forum Philosophicum 14, no. 2 (2009): 193–216. doi:10.35765/forphil.2009.1402.17.

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