A Contested Revolution (Collapse V: the Copernican Imperative) (Book Review‪)‬

Damian Veal (ed.), Collapse V: The Copernican Imperative, Urbanomic, Falmouth, 2009. ISBN: 978-0-9553087-4-1 There are few references in the history of philosophy as famous as the one made by Kant in his 1787 Preface to the 2nd edition of The Critique of Pure Reason, wherein he invokes the name of Copernicus for the apparent purpose of drawing an analogy to his own advances in metaphysics. While reflecting on the landmark contributions of his Critique--the displacement of a priori knowledge now de-centered from the thing-in-itself, imputing an irreducibility to observer-dependent objectivity, and a general elaboration of the transcendental conditions of possibility for the experience of reality--Kant references a 'similar experiment' made by the father of modern astronomy, Nicolaus Copernicus, when devising his heliocentric model. Less frequently noted, however, is that among the two passing references made to Copernicus, Kant never actually used the label 'Copernican revolution' when drawing his analogy ['mit den ersten Gedanken des Kopernicus7]. (1) Clearly, Kant self-lauded the novelty of his own critical approach to metaphysics for, as he put it, 'proceeding precisely along the same lines of Copernicus' primary hypothesis.' (2) What remains less evident is what Kant actually meant by this?