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Tags: Classics, Lang:en
Summary
Using Isaac Newton s mathematical principles and laws of
motion and taking up an idea first suggested by Emanuel
Swedenborg, Immanual Kant, the greatest philosopher of the
eighteenth century, in 1755 produced a detailed account of what
has come to be known as the Nebular hypothesis, still
considered the most plausible explanation for the formation of
the solar system: the structure of the universe develops from
widely dispersed materials scattered throughout space which,
under the influence of the forces of attraction and repulsion,
rotate, flatten, and over time produce stars and planets. In
his account, Kant also considers the ring of Saturn, the
formation of moons, and other celestial phenomena (like the
axial rotation of the planets and the development of comets).
He also lets his imagination run rampant in a fascinating
exploration of what living creatures must be like on other
planets.The extent to which Kant fully understood the
mathematical complexities involved in his explanation has been
strongly challenged, but, for all that, his account is an
important document in the most important trend of natural
science in the eighteenth century, that is, placing scientific
accounts of natural phenomena on a historical basis and seeing
them as the result of a process of development maintained by
mechanical forces (a revolutionary trend which culminates a
century later in the work of Charles Darwin). In this way,
while honoring Newton s achievement, Kant is also issuing a
direct challenge to it.Kant s work also offers an enthusiastic
defense of the design argument (that the harmonies in the
design of the solar system are the best physical evidence we
have for the existence of God), a claim which, ironically
enough, his later philosophy would do so much to undermine. **