Hegel and Newtonianism

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-xiv

   PDF

2. Metaphysics

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 1-1

      PDF

   2. Metaphysics and Scientific Proof: Newton and Hegel

      • James W. Garrison

      Pages 3-16

   3. The Conflict Between Newton’s Analysis of Configurations and Hegel’s Conceptual Analysis

      • Walter E. Wehrle

      Pages 17-26

   4. Analysis, Synthesis and Dialectic: Hegel’s Answer to Aristotle, Newton and Kant

      • Riccardo Pozzo

      Pages 27-39

   5. Gravity, Polarity and Dialectical Method

      • Barry Gower

      Pages 41-60

   6. Hegel on the Interaction Between Science and Philosophy

      • Gerd Buchdahl

      Pages 61-71

   7. Hegel’s Interpretation of Classical Mechanics

      • Horst-Heino von Borzeszkowski

      Pages 73-80

   8. The Philosophical Background to Hegel’s Criticism of Newton

      • Renate Wahsner

      Pages 81-90

   9. The Logic of Hegel’s Philosophy of Nature

      • Martin Drees

      Pages 91-101

   10. Defending Hegel’s Philosophy of Nature

       • Arnold Vincent Miller

       Pages 103-113

   11. Newton and Hegel: Can Science Explain the Scientist?

       • Stephen Priest

       Pages 115-123

   12. Newton’s Pantokrator and Hegel’s Absolute Mind

       • Ernest Wolf-Gazo

       Pages 125-135

3. Mathematics

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 137-137

      PDF

   2. The Method of Exhaustion as a Model for the Calculus

      • A. W. Moore

      Pages 139-148

   3. Hegel on Greek Mathematics and the Modern Calculus

      • Antonio Moretto

      Pages 149-165

   4. Newton and British Newtonians on the Foundations of the Calculus

      • Niccolò Guicciardini

      Pages 167-177

   5. The Dialectical Structure of Zeno’s Arguments

      • Imre Toth

      Pages 179-200

   6. Hegel’s Heritage in Applied Mathematics: A Plurality of Traditions

      • I. Grattan-Guinness

      Pages 201-208

   7. Hegel on Mathematics and Experimental Science

      • Louk Fleischhacker

      Pages 209-225

It could certainly be argued that the way in which Hegel criticizes Newton in the Dissertation, the Philosophy of Nature and the lectures on the History of Philosophy, has done more than anything else to prejudice his own reputation. At first sight, what we seem to have here is little more than the contrast between the tested accomplishments of the founding father of modern science, and the random remarks of a confused and somewhat disgruntled philosopher; and if we are persuaded to concede that it may perhaps be something more than this - between the work of a clearsighted mathematician and experimentalist, and the blind assertions of some sort of Kantian logician, blundering about among the facts of the real world. By and large, it was this clear-cut simplistic view of the matter which prevailed among Hegel's contemporaries, and which persisted until fairly recently. The modification and eventual transformation of it have come about gradually, over the past twenty or twenty-five years. The first full-scale commentary on the Philosophy of Nature was published in 1970, and gave rise to the realization that to some extent at least, the Hegelian criticism was directed against Newtonianism rather than the work of Newton himself, and that it tended to draw its inspiration from developments within the natural sciences, rather than from the exigencies imposed upon Hegel's thinking by a priori categorial relationships.

• Aristotle
• Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel
• Hegel
• Immanuel Kant
• Issac Newton
• Kant
• bibliography
• eighteenth century
• foundation
• interpret
• logic
• metaphysics
• optics
• philosophy
• physics

Policies and ethics