This article analyses a sceptical challenge resulting from metaphysical approaches to the problem of the necessity of empirical laws of nature in Kant’s critical philosophy (what I shall call ‘essentialist’ readings). I argue that this challenge may jeopardize the purpose of empirical enquiry (and therefore the plausibility of essentialist readings), but that Kant has internal resources to address it in the Dialectic of the Critique of Pure Reason. I show that reading this problem through the lens of the Dialectic allows us to reconcile the metaphysical question of necessitation of laws with a robust sense of empirical cognition.

中文翻译：

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从康德辩证法的角度看经验自然法则的必要性

本文分析了形而上学方法对康德批判哲学中经验自然法则的必然性问题所产生的怀疑性挑战（我将其称为“本质主义”解读）。我认为，这一挑战可能会危及经验探究的目的（从而危及本质主义解读的合理性），但康德有内部资源可以在《纯粹理性批判辩证法》中解决这个问题。我表明，通过辩证法的视角来解读这个问题，使我们能够将法律必要性的形而上学问题与强烈的经验认知感相调和。