This volume chronicles the development of philosophical conceptions of space from early antiquity through the medieval period to the early modern era, ending with Kant. The chapters describe the interactions at different moments in history between philosophy and various other disciplines, especially geometry, optics, and natural science more generally. Central figures from the history of mathematics, science and philosophy are discussed, including Euclid, Plato, Aristotle, Proclus, Ibn al-Haytham, Nicole Oresme, Kepler, Descartes, Newton, Leibniz, Berkeley, and Kant. Reflections enrich the volume by characterizing perspectives on space found in various disciplines including ecology, mathematics, sculpture, neuroscience, cultural geography, art history, and the history of science.

• Introduction


• Chapter One: Space in Ancient Times from the Beginning to Aristotle


• Barbara Sattler


• Reflection: City Space/Body Space: veiling as an embodied spatial practice


• Banu Gökariksel


• Chapter Two: Imagine a place: Geometrical and Physical Space in Proclus


• Marije Martijn


• Reflection: Ants in Space


• Nicole Heller


• Chapter Three: Concepts of Space in the 14th Century: Works of Nicole Oresme and selected earlier work for comparison


• Edith Sylla


• Reflection: Space, Vision and Faith: Linear Perspective in Renaissance Art and Architecture


• Mari Yoko Hara


• Chapter Four: Geometry and Visual Space from Antiquity to the Early Moderns


• Gary Hatfield


• Reflection: Space for Thought


• Jennifer Groh


• Chapter Five: Space in the Seventeenth Century


• Andrew Janiak


• Reflection: Chemical Laboratory and the Cosmic Space


• Mimi Kim


• Chapter Six: Space in Kantian Idealism


• Michael Friedman


• Reflection: Non-Euclidean Geometry


• Jeremy Gray


• Reflection: A Mathematical Sculptor's Perspective on Space


• George Hart

Andrew Janiak is Professor and Chair of Philosophy at Duke University, where he also co-leads Project Vox, a web-based enterprise that seeks to recover the lost voices of women in the early modern period. He is the author or editor of four previous books on Isaac Newton and early modern philosophy, and is currently co-writing (with Karen Detlefsen) the first English-language monograph on the philosophy of Émilie du Châtelet.