TRANSLATOR'S INTRODUCTION xvii 



Physics must precede Metaphysics. He happily 

 began his work by appropriating all the mathematical 

 and physical science of his age, and he made it the 

 stable foundation and criterion of all his subsequent 

 thinking. He was a faithful disciple of Newton, to 

 whose principles and method he owed most of his 

 formative power. . . . He laid it down that "the 

 genuine method of Metaphysics is one and the same 

 in principle with that which Newton introduced into 

 physical science," and he never lost sight of this 

 criterion and point of view. In the possession so far 

 of certain knowledge, he thinks as a metaphysician 

 and physicist, . all through his criticism of the pure 

 Reason, from beginning to end, and from his primary 

 certainty to his final result.' l 



II. THE SCIENTIFIC RETURN TO KANT. 



It is to the leaders of physical science in the 

 nineteenth century, and not to the speculative 

 philosophers, that we owe the true appreciation of 

 Kant's scientific work, and the disclosure of its rare 

 and abiding value. The two complete editions of 

 Kant's works that of Hartenstein of 1838-39, and 

 that of Rosenkranz and Schubert of 1838-42 

 brought the material of Kant's scientific writings, in 

 connection with the revival of direct study of Kant, 

 to the hand of all his students. But the interest 



x ln my introduction to Kant's Principles of Politics (T. & T. Clark), 

 where I deal more fully with the scientific character and habit of Kant's 

 thought through the whole three periods of his development. 



