How Do We Transform Appearance into Experience? Kant’s Metaphysical Foundations of Phenomenology

The Phenomenology has not received much consideration from commentators, at least compared with the Dynamics and the Mechanics. For instance, Pollok’s (2001) commentary to Kant’s MAN devotes only around thirty-five pages (of a roughly 550-page book) to the Phenomenology. That said, Friedman’s book Kant’s Construction of Nature (2013) represents a recent exception to this trend, offering the most complete account that extensively discusses this chapter. Nonetheless, the Phenomenology is the most intriguing, yet under-explored part of MAN, not only with respect to its relationship with other parts of Kant’s system but also with respect to the natural science of Kant’s time. This contribution builds upon and elaborates Friedman’s reading. More specifically, it facilitates the comparison of the Phenomenology with both other parts of Kant’s system and the science of his time, in particular, with Euler’s equation of motion for rigid bodies.