Renaisance Philosophy

Sanjit Vallabhaneni

Phil 202W

December 9th, 2014

Essay Exam 3

QUESTION 1                                                 Word Count: 699

The Copernican Revolution was the gradual switch in natural science beliefs from thinking all other celestial bodies revolve around the Earth (geocentric), to that proposed by Copernicus that celestial bodies revolve around the sun, instead (heliocentric).Kant claimed his philosophy represented a “Copernian revolution” in metaphysics and epistemology because, like Nicolaus Copernicus who changed the scientific beliefs prevalent at that time, Kant’s philosophy changed the whole scope of metaphysics and epistemology through his reasoning that the mind was at the center of the objective world. The mind here is analogous to the sun in Copernicus’s heliocentric model.

Kant changed philosophy the same way Copernicus changed astronomy. His goal was to create a completely new form of metaphysics as he found the existing metaphysical systems of previous philosophers to be too single minded. He thus wanted to establish a guideline for other forms of philosophy to follow in a manner similar to how Copernicus wanted to correct the existing scientific beliefs. Kant’s frustration on philosophic inquiry is clear through the quote “Why is it that it cannot obtain universal and lasting recognition as other sciences do.” (Kant 661B). His “Copernican revolution” is the result of the idea that human mind is the main component for all experience and knowledge perception and hence the sole reason for objective reality. He was quick to recognize the flaws surrounding judgments of perception, because judgments of perception are completely subjective. This subjectivity made it impossible to properly refute, however by establishing judgments of experience as a mechanism to create objectivity in philosophy, Kant was able to establish a new foundation for which new philosophical ideas could be based upon similar to how Copernicus’ idea that the planets revolved around the sun, laid the foundation for which new scientific advances could be based upon.

One of the major differences in Kant’s metaphysical claims compared to that of previous philosophers is his shift in spotlight from the basis of reality to the basis of the mind. Kant believed that reality was achieved or experienced through a synthesis of the human mind and the external space. It is the mind however which assists us in acquiring and forming knowledge which is certain. In essence what he is doing is laying doubt to the views of previous philosophers who believed the mind was a blank slate like Locke claimed and experience was the prime method of gathering knowledge like Berkeley said. He concludes by saying that if a mind can receive information, it can also process it with the assistance of other faculties and thus give it shape. Kant integrated two seemingly independent variables such as the external world and experiences logically which was of ‘Copernicus’ magnitude simply because he changed the way philosophy was viewed completely which is similar to how Copernicus changed the way science and astronomy was viewed.