Infinitesimal method and judgment of origin

H. PRINGE

Simposio; The era of Neo-Kantianism; 2021

In his Logic of pure knowledge Hermann Cohen claims: ?Auf dem Umweg des Nichts stellt das Urtheil den Ursprung des Etwas dar.?The goal of this talk is to explain this cryptic statement. For this purpose, we will begin by briefly considering Cohen´s early interpretation of differential calculus, contained in The Principle of the infinitesimal method and its history and Kant´s theory of experience. The analysis of these works will provide us with the presuppositions necessary to understand Cohen´s logic of origin (§1). Later, we will analyze Cohen´s mature doctrine of pure thinking in order to study the connections that Cohen establishes between the concepts of something, nothing, and origin (§2).