Abstract

abstract: According to a common narrative, Kant held a kind of relationalist view of space from the time of his earliest publication, Living Forces, until 1768, when he published Concerning the Ultimate Ground of the Differentiation of Directions in Space. The narrative holds further that considerations about incongruent counterparts prompted an abrupt volte-face—concerns about right and left hands were supposedly the decisive factor in causing a sudden shift to the metaphysical view expressed in Directions. I argue that the common narrative is wrong, offering a new account of the timeline of, and reasons behind, Kant's rejection of relationalism.