No label defined (Q4335829)

Where did Hermann Graßmann get his ideas from? Look here and at the article by Scholz. Justus is Hermann's father. The father's generation of dimensions one, two, three in space, his use of ``dynamic'' forces to generate crystals, come from the Naturphilosophie 1797-1830, in Schelling, Achim von Arnim, Fichte and Kant. Atomism, especially as in the contemporary French chemistry, was abhorred. Schelling pictured a unity of nature and reason: nature is visible mind, mind is invisible nature; inner being is revealed as \dots{} selforganizing forces. Fichte and Schelling describe the generation of space through expansion (addition) and contraction (subtraction), the dilation of a cube from a point by dynamic (force) motion of planes intersecting at a point, then moving out and away to generate first one dimension, then two in an area, and three in a cube of matter; these dynamic forces apply to all of space; their operation is described as multiplication, as giving products. The forces are idealized as magnetism in one dimension [Achim von Arnim uses heat as in conduction], as separated forces such as Coulomb's electric charge spread over a surface (area) for two dimensions [Achim von Arnim uses light], and as matter in three dimensions [Achim von Arnim uses magnetism and crystals]. The link of qualitative and quantitative through these forces overcomes Kant's separation into a priori quantity and theory (as in mathematics) and empiric, a posteriori quality (a form of natural history of science): quality is derived from quantity, the a posteriori from the a priori. For the entire collection see [Zbl 0853.00027].