La sfera infinita dell'universo nella Naturgeschichte di Kant

In the light of Kant’s numerous sources, I give an account of his 1755 doctrine of matter, as well as of his explanation of the origin of motion and of the material aggregates that ultimately produce the universe in the shape of a sphere in infinite expansion, the center of which marks the beginning of time and history. I also examine the part of Kant’s essay that connects the increasing perfection of rational creatures to the increasing distance of their bodies from the center (and the beginning) of the universe. In my opinion, despite its fantastic tone, this part of the essay has the merit of emphasizing the importance of the body for the mind, and of introducing for the first time in Kant’s writings the difference between the notions of verisimilitude and probability, so important for his later epistemology

Il saggio ricostruisce la teoria di Kant relativa a: I) la genesi del nostro sistema solare, come modello della genesi dei sistemi simili presenti nel mondo per come lo conosciamo; II) la primitiva formazione di tutto l’universo rappresentato come una sfera in infinita espansione; III) il rapporto fra capacità di pensiero e corpo, visto alla luce delle sue tesi cosmologiche e cosmogoniche.