Kant's substance, ether, and moving forces of matter

Messer, Sarah (2019) Kant's substance, ether, and moving forces of matter. Masters thesis, Memorial University of Newfoundland.

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Abstract

I will examine Kant's argument that, as a necessary condition of possible experience of the constantly changing physical world, there must be something which is always in existence of which all substances and changes are merely determinations. I will first examine Kant's writings on substance in the first analogy of experience form Critique of Pure Reason. I will then examine interaction in the third analogy, the Metaphysical Foundations of Natural Science, and Physical Geography. Then, I will examine Kant's conception of ether in Opus Postumum showing that it should be understood as the always persisting material that Kant has in mind when he writes about substance and interaction. Expanding on his conceptions of substance and community in the Critique of Pure Reason, I will argue that Kant's ether proofs are a necessary addition to his Analogies of Experience in the Critique of Pure Reason.

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