Kant's Copernican Revolution

In the early 1770s, the Prussian philosopher Immanuel Kant was shaken from what he called his 'dogmatic slumber'. The man responsible was the Scottish thinker David Hume. Until then, Kant had been a rationalist, believing pure reason could unlock reality’s secrets. But Hume posed a devastating challenge. He argued that humans never actually see a 'cause'—we only see one event follow another and, out of habit, assume a connection. This simple observation threatened the very foundation of science, reducing natural laws to mere psychological habits. If cause and effect were just an illusion, how could any objective knowledge be possible? Stunned, Kant retreated into over a decade of intense study, determined to find an answer.