Experiment and Metaphysics: Towards a Resolution of the Cosmological Antinomies

Edgar Wind was one of the most distinguished art historians and philosophers of the twentieth century. He made crucial contributions to debates on aesthetics and on the interdisciplinary nature of cultural history involving such other leading figures as Ernst Cassirer and Erwin Panofsky. It is not always realised, however, that his early thinking was moulded by a concern with the German philosophical tradition, culminating in the analysis of the meaning and function of scientific experimentation and proof. This first edition in English of Edgar Wind's important work Das Experiment und die Metaphysik: Zur Auflosung der kosmologischen Antinomien (1934) also carries a new introduction by Matthew Rampley, placing Wind's philosophical thinking in context. The work is being published to coincide with the opening in 2000 of the Sackler Library at Oxford, which will include a Wind Reading Room.

Table of Contents:
Introduction by Matthew Rampley, Author's Preface, PART ONE: THE THEORY OF THE EXPERIMENT 1. The Circle in Physical Inquiry 2. The Elements of Measurement and the Meaning of the Claim to Accuracy 3. Einstein’s Concept of ‘Practical Geometry’ 4. Poincares Principle of ‘Arbitrary Convention’ 5. The Task of the Experiment 6. Transformation and Embodiment 7. The ‘Judgements of Appropriateness’ 8. Real and Neutral Hypotheses 9. The Cyclical Progression and its Methodological Foundations 10. Metaphysics and Empirical Experience 11. Transcendental Philosophy and Experimental Method PART TWP: THE EXPERIMENTAL REDUCTION OF THE COSMOLOGICAL ANTINOMIES 12. The Empirical Criteria of Metaphysics Chapter 1 : The Antinomy of the Concept of the World 13. Clarification of the Question of the First Antinomy (Refutation of Russell’s Objection) 14. The Mathematical Antinomy of Euclidian Space 15. The Physical Antinomy of the Newtonian System 16. The Inevitability of the Newtonian Antinomy according to the Doctrines of Kant 17. Kant’s Interpretation of Absolute Space 18. Methodological Conclusion 19. The Mathematical Resolution of the Euclidian Antinomy 20. The Physical Resolution of the Newtonian Antinomy 21. The Principle of Internal Delimitation Chapter 2: The Antinomy of the Concept of the Atom 22. The ‘Inner Lim it’ in the Process of Division 23. Twoforms of ‘Uncertainty’ Chapter 3: Causality and Freedom 24. Heterogeneity and Necessity in the Connection between Cause and Effect 25. The Temporal Relation of Dynamical Connection 26. The ‘Free Play’ of the Present 27. Linear and Configural Progression of Time 28. Internal Delimitation and Indétermination 29. ‘Constancy’ and ‘Emergence’ 30. The Beginning and the End of Time 31. Freedom under the Condition of Natural Law Chapter 4: The Modality of Events 32. The Measurability of Chance as the Object of Interpretation