The Copernican revolution that Hägerström refers to is the one that Immanuel Kant relates to the second edition of Critique of Pure Reason (1787). Here Kant asks whether or not it is possible to establish a viable a priori cognition (knowledge) of objects based solely upon the objects themselves.95 Moreover, Kant asked whether the subject necessarily had to conform to the objects of cognition in the establishment of knowledge a priori, or if it was possible for the subject to stand free from objective restraints in the determination of synthetic cognition a priori of the objects.96 The immediate reason for Kant’s critical question was the hitherto fruitless philosophical attempts to apodictically affirm object-oriented synthetic knowledge.97 Would it not therefore be more scientifically rewarding to rephrase the question and take a new perspective as a point of reference?That is to say, to assume that it is the objects, rather than the subject, that should conform to its epistemological counterpart. Kant thus asks if it is not the objects that should conform to, be arranged, and shaped by the powers and capabilities of the subject, rather than letting the subject’s capabilities to be submitted to the inherent (and thus inaccessible) powers of the object.98 Kant’s reversal of positions opened the way for the abandonment of the old realistic tradition of the subject’s unconditional submission to the objects.99 In the time of Nikolaus Copernicus (1473-1543) it had become all too obvious that the actual movements of the stars and planets could not be predicted by means of the Ptolemaic models of a ca l l f o r s c i e n t i f i c p u r i t y 65 einträchtig angenommen haben, so verschieden auch ihre Ansichten über die Realität des Dinges an sich gewesen sein mögen.”94 2 . 4 . 1 the cope rnican revolut ion: hi storical re fe rence to kant 94 Hägerström, Selbstdarstellungen, pp. 4-5. 95 Kant, Cr. P. R., pp. B vii-xliv and B73. See also Kuehn, Kant:A Biography, pp. 241-242. 96 Kant, Cr. P. R., p. B xvi. 97 Ibid., pp. B xiv-xv. 98 Ibid., pp. B xvi, B xx. 99 Ibid., p. B xvi; The Blackwell Companion to Philosophy, Bunnin and Tsui-James, eds., pp. 590-593.
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