Reviews for The Natural and the Normative: Theories of Spatial Perception from Kant to Helmholtz

The average rating for The Natural and the Normative: Theories of Spatial Perception from Kant to Helmholtz based on 2 reviews is 4 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2020-07-26 00:00:00 Dave Horine Hatfield studies the emergence of modern empirical psychology through the transformations brought about by Kant, particularly through his transcendental theory of spatial perception. Kant established the new boundaries of psychology in terms of either empirical study of the brain as an object of naturalistic science, or epistemological investigation of the mind as the subject of cognition and knowledge. He thought the two were compatible, but could not be reduced to each other. Kant pointed out'and the failures of naturalistic psychology over the next century seemed to validate this'that epistemology has a normative dimension: it involves justifying the legitimacy of claims to knowledge. A study of the brain in purely empirical terms can never quite explain what it means to be a thing that thinks, knows and judges. The book gives good summaries of pretty overlooked thinkers, like Steinbuch, Tortual and Helmholtz. Its summary of Kant's project is quite accessible as well, and quite original. He convincingly argues that Kant considered his philosophy in epistemological rather than psychological terms. The real strength of the book lies in the historical framework Hatfield sets up along the lines of methodology, metaphysical stance, nativism/empiricism, and naturalism vs normativity.

Review # 2 was written on 2016-03-04 00:00:00 Daniel Martinez A useful guide to Jacques Lacan's psychoanalytic theories. In addition to discussing the categories of the Imaginary, the Symbolic and the Real, and the relation of metonymy and metaphor to desire and the symptom, Bowie employs Lacan's theories to determine what time it is in the unconscious'something that I have not seen other commentators attempt in their works on Lacanian thought.