Introduction

Kant’s claim that his philosophy effects as revolutionary a transformation of its discipline as the revolution wrought by Copernicus in astronomy cannot be sustained if, as almost always happens, it is interpreted as opposed to psychologism. When approached instead as the first and only a priori variety of psychologism to date, the opposite is true. Moreover, when so interpreted, not only does Kant’s philosophy cohere as it otherwise cannot, both internally and with its Humean precursor, but its originality also becomes strikingly evident in relation to virtually all subsequent philosophical traditions, analytic philosophy not least. Finally, a consequence of this that will be explored over the course of the book is that the most appropriate way to update Kant’s ideas for the present is not in relation to contemporary philosophy but in relation to contemporary science, particularly the sciences of mind. Subjects/authors discussed include psychology, consciousness, empiricism, evolution, genetics, scholarship, Descartes, Leibniz, Wolff, Hegel, and Donald D. Hoffman.