ESSAY REVIEW Metaphysics, Method, and the Exact Sciences Mark RisjorP Michael Friedman, Kant and the Exact Sciences (Cambridge, Mass. and London: Harvard University Press, 1992), xvii + 357 pp. ISBN t&674-500354 Cloth $45.00. THE PHILOSOPHY of science rests uneasily on the list of Kant’s philosophical advances. An important part of Kant’s project was to uncover the foundations of Euclidean geometry and Newtonian physics. Scientific developments have made his project seem antique. As a result, many commentators have tried to treat Kant’s epistemology and metaphysics independently from his views about science and mathematics. Michael Friedman’s new book shows just how much is missed by such an approach. Friedman treats Kant’s philosophy as an attempt to adapt traditional philosophical concepts to the results of Newtonian physics (and later, the chemical revolution). This interpretive strategy requires him to situate Kant both philosophically and scientifically. Friedman masterfully shows how Kant’s ideas arose from the tension between the empirical success of Newtonian physics and the rationalism of Liebniz and Wolff. The resulting philosophy of science is thick with interpretive knots. Friedman patiently unties each, using lucid presentations of the scientific, mathematical, and logical background to motivate his resolutions. Kant and the Exact Sciences is an exciting and important book. Kant and the Exact Sciences tracks Kant’s life-long fascination with the results of mathematized science. The book is divided into two Parts covering the critical period and Kant’s Opus Postumum. These are preceded by a lengthy and substantive ‘Introduction’ concerning the pre-critical period of Kant’s work. The Introduction sets up the later chapters by placing Kant’s work in the context of his debate with Leibniz and Wolff. The four chapters in Part One show how Kant’s understanding of space, time, and motion are under- written by his views about mathematics and mechanics. Friedman here *Department of Philosophy, 503 South Kedzie Hall, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI 48824, U.S.A. Stud. Hist. Phil. Sri., Vol. 24, No. 3, pp. 493-499, 1993. Printed in Great Britain 0039-368 l/93 $6.00 + 0.00 Pergamon Press Ltd 493