Preliminary communication
https://doi.org/10.31337/oz.77.2.3
Elements of Kant’s Transcendental Aesthetics in Einstein’s Theory of Relativity
Barbara Ćuk
orcid.org/0000-0002-5810-5951
; Faculty of Philosophy and Religious Studies, University of Zagreb, Zagreb, Croatia
Damjan Abou Aldan
orcid.org/0000-0003-0177-9813
; Faculty of Philosophy and Religious Studies, University of Zagreb, Zagreb, Croatia
Abstract
Einstein was familiar with The Critique of Pure Reason from an early age and would return to Kant’s texts later in his life. Based upon research on Einstein’s and Kant’s approach to cognition and their argumentation on space and time, the authors claim that both represent a certain form of synthesis between rationalism and empiricism; therefore, the authors’ research agrees with what has previously been published. However, Einstein interprets the a priori differently, though he does not reject it. In Einstein’s treatment of space and time as space–time, one can see that it coincides with Kant’s philosophy: namely, it is comprised of elements of spontaneity and syntheticity of cognition and of the separation of space and time from other categories but also their association in the act of sensory perception.
Keywords
Immanuel Kant; Albert Einstein; philosophy; science; time; space
Hrčak ID:
274681
URI
Publication date:
7.4.2022.
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