[M-ZZ39] Studies of Geoscience : historical, philosophical and STS studies

[MZZ39-P01] The Plurality of Worlds as the Driving Force of Modern Philosophy

*Shigeyuki Aoki¹ (1.Faculty of Letters, Chuo University)

Keywords:history of science, history of earth and planetary science, plurality of worlds, modern philosophy, epistemological turn

The plurality of worlds initiated by Copernicus shifted the dominant intellectual landscape from a medieval anthropocentrism (with humans at the center of the universe) to a cosmological principle (humans being a tiny fraction in the corner of the universe) and was actually the driving force which led to the formulation of modern philosophy. The process of this transformation has scarcely been scrutinized. This talk highlights two philosophers, Locke and Kant, who played important roles for the epistemological turn of modern philosophy, and points out that this turn was the result of the impact of that cosmology to philosophy.