The Genesis of the Copernican World

by Blumenberg, Hans; Wallace, Robert M.

• ISBN13: 9780262521444
• ISBN10: 026252144X
• Edition: Reprint
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 1989-10-12
• Publisher: The MIT Press

Summary

This major work by the German philosopher Hans Blumenberg is a monumental rethinking of the significance of the Copernican revolution for our understanding of modernity. It provides an important corrective to the view of science as an autonomous enterprise and presents a new account of the history of interpretations of the significance of the heavens for man. Hans Blumenberg is Professor of Philosophy, emeritus, at the University of Munster in West Germany. This book is included in the series Studies in Contemporary German Social Thought, edited by Thomas McCarthy

Author Biography

Hans Blumenberg, the creator of metaphorology, was one of the most important German philosophers of the latter 20th century.

Table of Contents

Translator's Introduction	ix
Part I The Ambiguous Meaning of the Heavens
Introduction	3	(5)
Cosmos and Tragedy	8	(14)
The Heavens as a Cave	22	(13)
At the End of the Observer in Repose	35	(17)
The Nonsimultaneity of the Simultaneous	52	(13)
The View of the Heavens and Self-Consciousness	65	(16)
Pure Intuition as an Anthropological Utopia	81	(10)
The Heavens as Charming Landscape; Photography and Anthropomorphism	91	(18)
Anachronism as a Need Founded in the Life-World: Realities and Simulation	109	(14)
Part II The Opening Up of the Possibility of a Copernicus
The History of What Led Up to the Event as Conditioning the History of Its Effects	123	(12)
Loosening of the Systematic Structure through Exhaustion of What the System Can Accomplish	135	(34)
Transformations of Anthropocentrism	169	(31)
Humanism's Idealization of the Center of the World	200	(9)
The Intolerability of Forgoing Truth in Favor of Technique	209	(21)
A Hypothetical Account of the Way Copernicus Arrived at His Theory	230	(34)
Part III A Typology of Copernicus's Early Influence
Introduction	259	(5)
The Theoretician as 'Perpetrator'	264	(26)
Consequences of an Instance of Well-Meaning Misguidance: Osiander	290	(26)
The Reformation and Copernicanism	316	(20)
Perplexities of Copernicus's Sole Student: Joachim Rheticus	336	(17)
Not a Martyr for Copernicanism: Giordano Bruno	353	(33)
Experiences with the Truth: Galileo	386	(51)
Part IV The Heavens Stand Still and Time Goes On
Introduction	433	(4)
How the Movement of the Heavens Was Indispensable for the Ancient Concept of Time	437	(16)
How Antiquity's Concept of Time Did Not Fit in the Middle Ages	453	(35)
The Perfection of the Earth as a New Precondition for the Old Concept of Time	488	(16)
The Deformation of the Earth and Absolute Time	504	(26)
Part V The Copernican Comparative
Introduction	525	(5)
Perspective as the Guide for Cosmological Expansion	530	(10)
The Copernican System as a Prototypical Supersystem	540	(25)
A Retrospect on Lambert's Universe, from the Twentieth Century	565	(8)
Competing Proposals for the System of Systems: Kant and Lambert	573	(22)
What Is ``Copernican'' in Kant's Turning?	595	(27)
Part VI Vision in the Copernican World
Introduction	617	(5)
How Horizons of Visibility Are Conditioned by Views of Man	622	(22)
The Proclamation of the New Stars, and One Single Person's Reasons for Believing It	644	(13)
The Lack of a 'Paratheory' to Explain Resistance to the Telescope	657	(18)
Reflexive Telescopics and Geotropic Astronautics	675	(12)
Translator's Notes	687	(22)
Author's Notes	709	(58)
Name Index	767