From the Medical Dissertation to the Lesser Metaphysics of the Young Lotze

Focusing on Lotze’s early works (1838–44) allows us to understand how closely his metaphysical and epistemological agendas were linked. In this chapter I will emphasize the Kantian features of Lotze’s early (lesser) Metaphysics , especially its second part dealing with the world of phenomena. Next, I’ll try to answer the question: Could this work be described as Lotze’s own proposal for establishing “Metaphysical Foundations of Natural Science”? I will show that the “transcendental forms of intuitivity ( Anschaulichkeit )”, which stand as metaphysical categories in Lotze’s early metaphysics, already formed the structure of his medical dissertation. Furthermore, taking into account an unexpected expression linking the physiological concept of “irritability” and the “transcendental form”, I will argue that for Lotze the concept-clarifying function that metaphysics exercises has a counterpart in natural science. In return, the latter might have a heuristic function in order to trace back the metaphysical “presuppositions” of human knowledge.