Abstract

"On the Way to a Metaphysics of Freedom: Kant's Idea to accomplish the Kopernicanic Shift by the Experiment of the Reason with itself." 1) Kant's Kopernicanic shift is read as an attempt to solve a main problem of the rationalistic tradition on metaphysics (Leibniz-Wolff; Spinoza): Adopting a method developed in analogy to the successful revolutions within the mathematical and the natural sciences, he tries to find a criterion for an uncontradictional concept of a future metaphysics. We analyze his method, goals and achievements. 2) Contrasting Kant's concept of freedom as the grounding dimension of his meta-physical theory with the post-Kantian systems (Fichte, Schelling, Hegel)--the conclusions are: Only by the distinction between the noumenal and the phenomenal sphere, Kant is able a) To reconciliate the rational ideas of the absolute (rooting the postulate of freedom) with the permanent revision of our natural and scientific access to the world; b) To find a new foundation for the three main topics of a future 'metaphysica specialis'; (in modern terms): the body-mind discussion; freedom as the basis of morality and God (within the horizon of a 'theologic negativa')