Abstract

This paper explores Kant's attempt in the Physical Monadology (1756) to arrange a marriage between metaphysics and geometry (as represented, respectively, by the Leibnizian-Wolffians and the Newtonians), and it also considers why the marriage failed. It is argued that the theory of space that Kant advocates is not only not necessary for his account of physical monads, but that it is in various respects in tension with his Newtonian approach to geometry, resulting in a bad dynamic in the marriage. The paper concludes with some reflections on the evolution, in the years after the Physical Monadology, of Kant's views on space and monads.