The Logic and Topology of Kant’s Temporal Continuum

Abstract

Abstract. In this article we provide a mathematical model of Kant?s temporal continuum that satisfies the (not obviously consistent) synthetic a priori principles for time that Kant lists in the Critique of pure Reason (CPR), the Metaphysical Foundations of Natural Science (MFNS), the Opus Postumum and the notes and fragments published after his death. The continuum so obtained has some affinities with the Brouwerian continuum, but it also has 'infinitesimal intervals' consisting of nilpotent infinitesimals, which capture Kant's theory of rest and motion in MFNS. While constructing the model, we establish a concordance between the informal notions of Kant?s theory of the temporal continuum, and formal correlates to these notions in the mathematical theory. Our mathematical reconstruction of Kant?s theory of time allows us to understand what ?faculties and functions? must be in place for time to satisfy all the synthetic a priori principles for time mentioned. We have presented here a mathematically precise account of Kant?s transcendental argument for time in the CPR and of the relation between the categories, the synthetic a priori principles for time, and the unity of apperception; the most precise account of this relation to date. We focus our exposition on a mathematical analysis of Kant's informal terminology, but for reasons of space, most theorems are explained but not formally proven; formal proofs are available in (Pinosio,

Интуиция: Опыт Формального Исследования

“…Для Канта чистые интуиции пространства и времениаприорные формы чувственного созерцаниясуть априорные условия нашего понимания и опыта [347] Альфред Коржи ́бски (Alfred Korzybski, польский и американский исследователь, основатель общей семантики) в своей книге «Science and Sanity» (1933г.) подробно описал новую теорию человечествачеловечества как класса жизни, способного развиваться, основываясь на аккумулированных другими знаниях (англ.…”