Room: H&SS 7077 Prof. Eric Watkins
Times: Tuesday 1:00-3:50 Office: H&SS 8018
Term: Spring Quarter 2003 Office tel: 822-0082
Office Hours: Th 1:00-2:30 & by appointment E-mail: ewatkins@ucsd.edu


I. Reading Assignments (subject to adjustment)

T 4-1 Introduction
   
T 4-8 Newton, Principia (selections), Opticks (selections)
Leibniz, "Specimen dynamicum," "On Nature Itself," "New System of Nature"
  Garber, "Leibniz: Physics and Philosophy"
Cohen, "Newton's Concepts of Force and Mass"
McMullin, Newton on Matter and Activity (esp. chapters 2 and 4)
   
T 4-15 Leibniz, Newton-cont.
Wolff, Rational Thoughts, Baumgarten, Metaphysics , Euler, Letters to a German Princess
  Calinger, "The Newtonian-Wolffian Controversy"
Calinger, "Euler's 'Letters to a Princess of Germany'..."
   
T 4-22 Thoughts on the True Estimation of Living Forces, Nova dilucidatio, Physical Monadology
  Kuehn, "Kant's Teachers in Science"
Polonoff, Force, Cosmos, Monads,... in Kant's Early Thought
Schönfeld, The Philosophy of the Young Kant
   
T 4-29 Negative Magnitudes, Directions in Space
  Friedman, Kant and the Exact Sciences, Introduction
     
M 5-5
  
First Paper Due
   
T 5-6 Metaphysical Foundations, Preface
 

Ameriks, "Kant on Science and Common Knowledge"
Butts (Ed.), Kant's Philosophy of Physical Science (select articles)
Friedman, "Matter and Motion in the 'Metaphysical Foundations' and the First 'Critique'"
Plaass, Kant's Theory of Natural Science
Pollok, Kritischer Kommentar zu Kants MAdN, Section 3.1
Watkins, "The Argumentative Structure of the Metaphysical Foundations"

   
T 5-13 Metaphysical Foundations, Dynamics Chapter
  Kitcher, "Kant's Philosophy of Science"
Friedman, Kant and the Exact Sciences, chapter 3 & 4
Pollok, Kritischer Kommentar zu Kants MAdN, Section 3.3
Warren, "Kant's Dynamics"
   
T 5-20 Metaphysical Foundations, Dynamics Chapter-cont.
   
T 5-27 Metaphysical Foundations, Mechanics Chapter
 

Duncan, "Inertia, the Communication of Motion and Kant's Third Law of Mechanics"
Friedman, Kant and the Exact Sciences, Ch. 3&4
Palter, "Kant's Formulation of the Laws of Motion"
Pollok, Kritischer Kommentar zu Kants MAdN, Section 3.4
Watkins, "The Laws of Motion from Newton to Kant"
Watkins, "Kant's Justification of the Laws of Mechanics"
   
T 6-3 Metaphysical Foundations, Mechanics Chapter-cont.
   
   
W 6-11
Final Paper Due



II. Requirements:

Two Papers

The first paper is medium in length (6-10 pages) and is due Monday May 5th. The second paper is a regular term paper (ca. 20 pages) and is due Wednesday June 11th. Submission of a projected term paper topic (2-4 pages) roughly one week before the paper is due is strongly encouraged in both cases. Extensions are permitted only in extreme circumstances (e.g., illness) and must be requested in advance. Simply not having enough time is not an adequate reason for an extension/incomplete.

Class Participation

Class participation is an important part of this course. Rather than require formal class presentations, students will be required to contribute both by engaging in discussion on a regular basis and by reading secondary literature and adding the perspective represented in the secondary literature to the class discussion.

III. Bibliography:

Primary Literature

Baumgarten, Alexander, Metaphysics, in Kant's Critique of Pure Reason: Background Source Materials, ed. Watkins, E. & Kuehn, M., New York: Cambridge University Press, in preparation.

Euler, Leonard, Letters [to a German Princess] of Euler on Different Subjects in Natural Philosophy, New York: Arno Press, 1975.

Leibniz, Gottfried Wilhelm, Philosophical Essays, ed. Ariew, R. & Garber, D., Indianapolis: Hackett Publishing Company, 1989.

Kant, Immanuel, Theoretical Philosophy after 1781, ed. Allison, H. & Heath, P., New York: Cambridge University Press, 2002. (contains Metaphysical Foundations of Natural Science)

Kant, Immanuel, Theoretical Philosophy, 1755-1770, ed. Walford, D., New York: Cambridge University Press, 1992. (contains most of Kant's pre-Critical writings).

Newton, Isaac, Principia, ed. Motte, revised by Cajori, Berkeley: University of California Press, 1934.

Newton, Isaac, Opticks, New York: Dover Publications, 1952.

Wolff, Christian, Rational Thoughts on God, the World and the Soul of Human Beings, Also All Things in General, in Kant's Critique of Pure Reason: Background Source Materials, ed. Watkins, E. & Kuehn, M., New York: Cambridge University Press, in preparation.

Secondary Literature

Ameriks, Karl, "Kant on Science and Common Knowledge," in Kant and the Sciences.

Butts, Robert, Kant's Philosophy of Physical Science, Boston: Reidel, 1986.

Calinger, Ronald, "The Newtonian-Wolffian Controversy," Journal of the History of Ideas 30 (1969): 309-330.
"Euler's 'Letters to a Princess of Germany' As an Expression of his Mature Scientific Outlook," Archive for History of Exact Sciences 15 (l976): 211 - 233.

Cohen, I. B., "Newton's Concepts of Force and Mass" in the Cambridge Companion to Newton, ed. Cohen, I.B. & Smith, G., New York: Cambridge, 2002.

Duncan, Howard, "Inertia, the Communication of Motion and Kant's Third Law of Mechanics," Philosophy of Science 51 (1984), pp. 93-119.

Friedman, Michael, Kant and the Exact Sciences Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1992.
"Matter and Motion in the "Metaphysical Foundations" and the First "Critique"" in Kant and the Sciences.

Garber, Daniel, "Leibniz: Physics and Philosophy" in Cambridge Companion to Leibniz, ed. N. Jolley, New York: Cambridge University Press, 1995.

Kitcher, Philip, "Kant's Philosophy of Science," in Midwest Studies in Philosophy, vol. VIII Contemporary Perspectives on the History of Philosophy, (eds.) French, P., Uehling, T., and Wettstein, H., Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1983, pp. 387-407.

Kuehn, Manfred, "Kant's Teachers in Science," in Kant and the Sciences.

McMullin, Ernan, Newton on Matter and Activity Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press, 1978.

Palter, Robert, "Kant's Formulation of the Laws of Motion," Synthese 24 (1972): 96-116.

Plaass, Peter, Kant's Theory of Natural Science, Boston: Kluwer, 1994.

Pollok, Konstantin, Kritischer Kommentar zu Kants MAdN, Hamburg: Meiner Verlag, 2001.

Polonoff, Irving, Force, Cosmos, Monads, and other Themes of Kant's Early Thought Kant-Studien-Ergänzungsheft, Nr. 107, Bonn: Bouvier, 1973.

Schönfeld, Martin, The Philosophy of the Young Kant New York: Oxford University Press, 2000.

Warren, Daniel, "Kant's Dynamics" in Kant and the Sciences.

Watkins, Eric (Ed.), Kant and the Sciences New York: Oxford University Press, 2001.
"The Laws of Motion from Newton to Kant," Perspectives on Science 5 (1997): 311-348.
"Kant's Justification of the Laws of Mechanics," in Kant and the Sciences.
"The Argumentative Structure of the Metaphysical Foundations of Natural Science," Journal of the History of Philosophy 36 (1998): 567-593.