Analysis of the different theories about the nature of space held by Isaac Newton, Carl Leibniz, and Emmanuel Kant

Throughout the history of science there has always been competition among rival theories. An unusual case of interest arises when the theories cannot be tested by any conventional means. Such is the case with different views of space. Isaac Newton, Carl Leibniz, and Emmanuel Kant all proposed different theories about the nature of space. With no true experimental evidence to back up any of the competing theories one is left to choose between ideas based …

…Leibniz, saying that space is really nothing in terms of objects, as they exist apart from us, with things in themselves. Without any kind of objective knowledge or experimental evidence to back up the theories, it is hard to choose any one over the others. Kant's transcendentalist view, however, seems to be the most logical of the three because it takes the strongest parts of the other two theories, leaving out the weaknesses and inconsistencies.