From real opposition to the problem of change

pp. 41-69

in: Marco Giovanelli, Reality and negation - Kant's principle of anticipations of perception, Berlin, Springer, 2011

Abstract

As the preceding chapter has shown, the conception of phenomenal reality that Kant defends in the Anticipations of Perception finds its empirical application in the dynamism of the Metaphysical Foundations of Natural Science. In Kant's dynamism, agreement between "realities' is not constituted on the lines of a relation between non-contradictory concepts, but rather on the model of a relation between opposed forces that establish an equilibrium. The meaning of this concession and its philosophical implications cannot be understood without considering the central function that the evolution of Kantian thought assigned to the distinction between two forms of opposition: logical opposition (between concepts) and real opposition (between forces).