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June 23, 2008

Collapse V

The Copernican Imperative

Copernicanism tore asunder the fit between the world and man's organs: the congruence between reality and visibility.
- Hans Blumenberg, The Genesis of the Copernican World

In his Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems, Galileo proclaimed, through his mouthpiece Salviati, that he could "never sufficiently admire the outstanding acumen" of those early advocates of Copernicanism who, "through sheer force of intellect" - that is, without even the benefit of a telescope to confirm the theory observationally - "had done such violence to their own senses as to prefer what reason told them over that which sensible experience plainly showed them to the contrary".

Since Galileo published his work in 1632, recognition of the deeply counterintuitive nature of scientific findings has become virtually commonplace, and the 'explanatory gap' between the 'manifest' and 'scientific' images of reality has long been a central concern for philosophers and philosophically-minded scientists alike. In this volume of Collapse, our aim is to bring together samples of the most intellectually challenging contemporary work devoted to exploring the philosophical implications of 'Copernicanism' in this sense from a variety of overlapping and complementary standpoints. In line with the vision of Collapse as an exploratory space for interdisciplinary philosophy or experimental metaphysics, we plan to include in the volume contributions from researchers in fields as divergent as the history and philosophy of science, theoretical physics and cosmology, biology, mathematics, cognitive neuroscience, and astrobiology, which in one way or another address the issue of the 'deanthropomorphisation' of reality initiated by the Copernican Revolution, as well as contributions from artists and writers whose work addresses these philosophical concerns. The resulting volume will comprise a thought-provoking compilation of papers and interviews which we hope will exemplify that characteristic blend of speculative audacity and scientifically informed insight which has always been the hallmark of 'Copernicanism'.

Collapse V is scheduled for publication November 2008. Further details will be announced on this site.