Abstract for the Kant in Asia
International Conference
at Hong Kong Baptist
University
20-23 May 2009
Nils Röller,
“Thinking with Instruments: The Example of Kant's
Compass”
In
Kant's texts the word "compass" appears frequently. Like
"writing, counting, iron, gunpowder, glass," for Kant the compass is
one of the arts "that can only be invented once". Kant mentions this
invention at significant points in the critical writings. These are points
where the boundaries between familiar ways of thinking and the new critical
thought are discussed. I shall demonstrate that Kant's reference to the
compass, as the most important nautical instrument of the period, is specific.
The compass is not an instrument that Kant "fantasised' about -- as Adicke
argues concerning Kant`s Reflexions on magnetic phenomena. In the line of my
argument I shall recapitulate relevant aspects regarding the history of the
compass as a chinese invention, as well as its later european use. In addition
to that it leads to a case study for the relation between the architecture of a
philosophic argument and the history of technology.