Kant's Copernican Revolution

Paper Summary:

The paper highlights the role of David Hume and Immanuel Kant in rescuing the tradition of rationalism, specifically Hume's "science of man" and Kant's "Copernican revolution of the mind" which places man at the center of all reasoning. The paper shows how both Hume and Kant are engaged in constructing a metaphysics of morality where they reject the concept of certainty in a materially objective sense.

From the Paper:

"The atomists of ancient Greece tried to overcome uncertainty by ideas and concentrating on material substance, picturing it as composed of indestructible fundamental units, which Democritus labeled 'atoms'. Of course, this too was a concept, but by picturing the metaphysical building block of the universe in such tangible terms he turned epistemology into a science, and in the process gave birth to the notion of determinism - ie certainty as obtained through empirical investigation. Determinism was a reinvigorated quest with the advent of the European Renaissance."

Sample of Sources Used:

• Cassirer, E. (1951). The Philosophy of the Enlightenment. Trans. Fritz C. A. Koelln and James P. Pettegrove. p. 59. Boston: Beacon Press.
• Hume, D. (2006). A Treatise on Human Nature. p. 417. Charleston, SC: BiblioBazaar.
• Hume, D. (2006). An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding. Tom L. Beauchamp (Ed.) p. 7. New York: Oxford University Press, USA.
• Kant, I. (1999). Critique of Pure Reason. Werner S. Pluhar (Trans.), Eric Watkins (Ed.) p. 1. Boston: Hackett Publishing Company.
• Kant, I. (1998). Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals. Mary Gregor (Ed.) p. 4. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

More papers on Kant's Copernican Revolution:

• Essay # 5349 : "Kant's Free Will and the Dual Nature of Humankind"
• Essay # 58956 : "Kant on the Reality of Space"
• Analytical Essay # 3622 : "Methadological Approaches to Kant"

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