Kant’s Ideal of Systematicity in Historical Context

Kantian Review 26 (2):261-286 (2021)
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Abstract

This article explains Kant’s claim that sciences must take, at least as their ideal, the form of a ‘system’. I argue that Kant’s notion of systematicity can be understood against the background of de Jong & Betti’s Classical Model of Science (2010) and the writings of Georg Friedrich Meier and Johann Heinrich Lambert. According to my interpretation, Meier, Lambert, and Kant accepted an axiomatic idea of science, articulated by the Classical Model, which elucidates their conceptions of systematicity. I show that Kant’s critique of the mathematical method is compatible with his adherence to this axiomatic conception of science. I further show that systematicity furthers traditionally accepted logical ideals of scientific knowledge, which explains why Meier and Kant think that sciences must be ‘systematic’.

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Hein Van Den Berg
University of Amsterdam

Citations of this work

The Essentialism of Early Modern Psychiatric Nosology.Hein van den Berg - 2023 - History and Philosophy of the Life Sciences 45 (2):1-25.
Kant's Theory of Scientific Hypotheses in its Historical Context.Boris Demarest & Hein van den Berg - 2022 - Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part A 92:12-19.

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