Difference between revisions of "Copernican revolution"

From No Subject - Encyclopedia of Psychoanalysis
Jump to: navigation, search
 
(The LinkTitles extension automatically added links to existing pages (https://github.com/bovender/LinkTitles).)
Line 1: Line 1:
  
Copernicus's ''De revolutionibus orbium coelestium'' (On the revolutions of the heavenly spheres, 1543) demonstrates that the sun is the center of the solar system and thus destroys the earlier Ptolemais system, which assumed that the heavenly bodies rotated around the earth.
+
[[Copernicus]]'s ''De revolutionibus orbium coelestium'' (On the revolutions of the heavenly spheres, 1543) demonstrates that the sun is the center of the solar [[system]] and thus destroys the earlier Ptolemais system, which assumed that the heavenly bodies rotated around the earth.
The so-called 'Copernican revolution' has therefore come to be seen as the archetypal example of a scientific revolution (or [[epistemological break]]), and analogies with it play an important role in attempts to demonstrate or assert the scientific nature of emergent theories.
+
The so-called 'Copernican [[revolution]]' has therefore come to be seen as the archetypal example of a [[scientific]] revolution (or [[epistemological break]]), and analogies with it play an important [[role]] in attempts to demonstrate or assert the scientific [[nature]] of emergent theories.
  
In the preface to the second edition of his ''Critique of Pure Reason'' (1787), [[Kant]] explains that he proposes to do for philosophy 'just what Copernicus did in attempting to explain the celestial movements.'
+
In the preface to the second edition of his ''Critique of Pure [[Reason]]'' (1787), [[Kant]] explains that he proposes to do for [[philosophy]] 'just what Copernicus did in attempting to explain the celestial movements.'
Kant's Copernican revolution in [[metaphysics]] reverses the traditional theory of cognition by demonstrating that [[knowledge]] does not conform to a realm of [[object]]s; [[object]]s conform, rather, to ways of knowing and it follows that we know them as they appear to us, and not as they exist in themselves.
+
Kant's Copernican revolution in [[metaphysics]] reverses the traditional [[theory]] of cognition by demonstrating that [[knowledge]] does not conform to a realm of [[object]]s; [[object]]s conform, rather, to ways of [[knowing]] and it follows that we [[know]] [[them]] as they appear to us, and not as they [[exist]] in themselves.
  
[[Freud]] describes [[psychoanalysis]] (1916-1917) as the last of three Copernican revolutions, or of three major blows to the self-love of man.
+
[[Freud]] describes [[psychoanalysis]] (1916-1917) as the last of [[three]] Copernican revolutions, or of three major blows to the [[self]]-[[love]] of man.
Copernicus demonstrated that the earth was not the center of the universe, and Darwin's theory of evolution dethrones man from his privileged place in creation.
+
Copernicus demonstrated that the earth was not the center of the [[universe]], and [[Darwin]]'s [[theory of evolution]] dethrones man from his privileged [[place]] in creation.
[[Psychoanalysis]] then delivers the most wounding blow of all, as the discovery of the [[unconscious]] reveals that the [[ego]] is not master in its own house.
+
[[Psychoanalysis]] then delivers the most wounding blow of all, as the discovery of the [[unconscious]] reveals that the [[ego]] is not [[master]] in its own house.
  
According to [[Lacan]], [[Freud]]'s emphasis on the centrality of the conscious [[subject]] and the [[ego]], by [[decentring]] the subject and demonstrating that it is governed by forces outsides it conscious control.
+
According to [[Lacan]], [[Freud]]'s emphasis on the centrality of the [[conscious]] [[subject]] and the [[ego]], by [[decentring]] the subject and demonstrating that it is governed by forces outsides it conscious [[control]].

Revision as of 04:42, 24 May 2019

Copernicus's De revolutionibus orbium coelestium (On the revolutions of the heavenly spheres, 1543) demonstrates that the sun is the center of the solar system and thus destroys the earlier Ptolemais system, which assumed that the heavenly bodies rotated around the earth. The so-called 'Copernican revolution' has therefore come to be seen as the archetypal example of a scientific revolution (or epistemological break), and analogies with it play an important role in attempts to demonstrate or assert the scientific nature of emergent theories.

In the preface to the second edition of his Critique of Pure Reason (1787), Kant explains that he proposes to do for philosophy 'just what Copernicus did in attempting to explain the celestial movements.' Kant's Copernican revolution in metaphysics reverses the traditional theory of cognition by demonstrating that knowledge does not conform to a realm of objects; objects conform, rather, to ways of knowing and it follows that we know them as they appear to us, and not as they exist in themselves.

Freud describes psychoanalysis (1916-1917) as the last of three Copernican revolutions, or of three major blows to the self-love of man. Copernicus demonstrated that the earth was not the center of the universe, and Darwin's theory of evolution dethrones man from his privileged place in creation. Psychoanalysis then delivers the most wounding blow of all, as the discovery of the unconscious reveals that the ego is not master in its own house.

According to Lacan, Freud's emphasis on the centrality of the conscious subject and the ego, by decentring the subject and demonstrating that it is governed by forces outsides it conscious control.