"[T]he program which Immanuel Kant proposed back in the 1760s... was this: our knowledge of the outside world depends on our modes of perception... Unfortunately, a great revolution took place in or about the year 1768, when he read a paper by Euler which intended to show that space was indeed absolute as Newton had suggested and not relative as Leibnitz suggested. (...in the eighteenth century the question of whether Newton's... or Leibnitz's view of the world was right profoundly affected all philosophy.) After reading Euler's argument... Kant... for the first time proposed that... we must be conscious of [absolute space] a priori. ...Kant died in 1804, long before new ideas about space... had been published... And since one of the things that happened in [our] lifetime has been the substitution of... a Leibnitz universe, the universe of relativity, for Newton's universe... we should think that out again."
Quote Details
Added by wikiquote-import-bot
Unverified quote
0 likes
Academics from GermanyInventorsMathematicians from GermanyPhysicists from GermanyPhilosophers from Germany
Original Language: English
Available Languages (1)
Sources
Jacob Bronowski, The Origins of Knowledge and Imagination (1978)
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Gottfried_Leibniz
Revision History
No revisions have been submitted for this quote.
Categories
Gottfried Leibniz
Gottfried Wilhelm von Leibniz (1 July 1646 {21 June O.S.} – 14 November 1716) was a German philosopher and mathematician.
61 quotes on TrueQuotesView all quotes by Gottfried Leibniz →
Related Quotes
"Musica est exercitium arithmeticae occultum nescientis se numerare animi."
"quando orientur controversiae, non magis disputatione opus erit inter duos philosophos, quam inter duos computistas. …"
"Languages are the best mirror of the human mind [and] the most ancient monuÂments of peoples."
"Theologus: Amare autem? Philosophus: Felicitate alterius delectari."
"Nam filum labyrintho de compositione continui deque maximo et minimo ac indesignabili at que infinito non nisi geomet…"
"To love is to be delighted by the happiness of someone, or to experience pleasure upon the happiness of another. I de…"
"Omne possibile exigit existere."
"Chaque substance est comme un monde à part, indépendant de toute autre chose, hors de Dieu..."
"As regards the objection that possibles are independent of the decrees of God I grant it of actual decrees (although …"
"Il y a deux labyrinthes fameux où notre raison s’égare bien souvent : l'un regarde la grande question du libre et du …"