Kant e la sostanza materiale. Fisica, metafisica, esperienza (Kant on material substance. Physics, metaphisics and experience)

In this paper I examine the connection between the concepts of material substance and body in Kant's thought. The transition from the metaphysical concept of substance to its physical instantiation, in the Metaphysical Foundations of Natural Science (1786), has raised controversial interpretation among interpreters. Some scholars have argued that Kant's project of a dynamistic physics turns out to be a necessary condition for the application of the category of substance, thus questioning the very autonomy of transcendental philosophy. I propose an alternative reading and a solution of the controversy, arguing that Kant has a twofold concept of material substance, a more general one, related to perceptual experience, and a more specific one, related to physics.