Lecturers: Hartmut Hecht, Ruth Hagengruber, Andrea Reichenberger and Dieter Suisky

Location: L1.202 , Paderborn University

After the study of space and time in “Du Châtelet Between Leibniz and Newton” we are now moving on to explore “Du Châtelet Between Leibniz and Kant.”

This course will focus on Du Châtelet and the Eberhard-Kant Controversy, including the problems of space and time in Leibniz, Kant and Du Châtelet. In the famous Kant-Eberhard controversy, we learn that Eberhard traces Kant’s roots back to Leibnizian philosophy and its commentators, including Du Châtelet, who he identifies as a key interpreter of Leibniz. This judgement has many interesting implications.

Eberhard tries to prove that Kant’s ideas were not as “original” as he had claimed. If Kant’s ideas can be tied back to Leibniz-Wolffian philosophy, is this also true for Du Châtelet? If this is an invalid claim for an adequate understanding of Kant, is it consequently also inadequate for Du Châtelet? In what sense is Du Châtelet an intermediary between Leibniz and Kant? Can Kant’s claim that his philosophy differs from Leibniz concerning his interpretation of phenomena, the knowledge of their origin and essence, be detected in Du Châtelet’s philosophy as well? How close is Du Châtelet to the philosophy of Leibniz or the ideas of Wolff, and how near is Kant to the ideas of Du Châtelet?

To approach this large field of investigation, we will focus on the following topics:

• The concept of space and time in Leibniz (which was held to be an “idealized” and “logical” concept by Kant).
• The concept of space and time in Kant’s Critique of Pure Reason (A edition, 1781)
• The chapter on Space and Time in Du Châtelet’s Foundations of Physics.
• Selected passages from Eberhard on Du Châtelet, Wolff and others.

Student Presentation Schedule

All interested parties are welcome to apply! Visit: Libori Summer School 2018