Copernicus’ Rôle in Kant’s Revolution

Abstract

Like Copernicus, Kant sought to explain the properties of observed phenomena by postulating a kind of activity in the observer. This is the “Copernican Revolution”. Nonetheless, in expositions of Kant’s metaphysics the expressions “Copernican Revolution” and “Copernican Hypothesis” have come to assume a perhaps unwarranted role. Commentators and historians of philosophy suggest that Kant himself actually used these phrases and that there is one and only one meaning in Kant’s mind for such language. Though these distinguished Kantian scholars intimate both that Kant used the expression “the Copernican Revolution” and also that he meant to compare his revolution with that of Copernicus in one and only one way, the following analysis aims to show that it is still worth inquiring whether this is an adequate account of the connections between Copernicus and Immanuel Kant.