THE
PHILOSOPHY
OF THE
PURE SCIENCES.
The way in which we are led to regard human knowledge is like the way in which Copernicus was led to regard the heavens. When the explanation of the celestial motions could not be made to go right so long as he assumed that all the host of stars turns round the spectator, he tried whether it would not answer better if he made the spectator turn, and left the stars at rest. We may make a similar trial in Metaphysics, as to our way of looking at objects. If our view of them must be governed altogether by the properties of the objects themselves, I see not how man can know anything about them à priori. But if the thing, as an object of the senses, is regulated by the constitution of our power of knowing, I can very readily represent to myself this possibility.
Kant, Kritik d. R. V. Pref.