Eduard Meyer and Immanuel Kant

 

Eduard Meyer

Though I myself am not a Kantian, by far my favourite book on the subject of the philosophy of science is Dr. Gavin Ardley’s Aquinas and Kant, in which Ardley gives to Kant the credit for having uncovered the nature of modern theoretical science (or physics). In fact I was so impressed with this book, and its importance, that I painstakingly typed it up at:

http://brightmorningstar.blog.com/2008/10/21/gavin-ardleys-book-aquinas-and-kant/

 

The modern physicist apparently, quite unlike the earlier scientists, does not seek to study nature as it really is, but instead (and this is Kant) imposes his/her ‘a priori’ mental constructs upon nature.

According to Ardley this is for utilitarian and commercial purposes.

Now I believe that the same type of artificial process has been applied by chronologist Eduard Meyer to ancient Egyptian chronology, which then became the yardstick for the chronologies of other ancient nations. With disastrous effect! (See e.g., Peter James’s Centuries of Darkness). I don’t know whether Meyer, a German, was also a Kantian, but he – endeavouring to bring some type of mathematical (astronomically-based) order to the highly complex Egyptian chronology (30 dynasties) – imposed his pre-conceived system which, unfortunately, has no compelling basis in reality. For a handy summary of this, see my:

 

The Fall of the Sothic Theory: Egyptian Chronology Revisited

http://www.academia.edu/3665220/The_Fall_of_the_Sothic_Theory_Egyptian_Chronology

 

And Kant himself, mistakingly thinking that this  ‘a priori’ approach is how the human mind actually works, went on to develop an epistemology, a pseudo ‘metaphysics’, that - whilst it may be neat and convenient - is actually no more real than is Meyer’s Sothic system.