Kant saw the big picture...the really big picture, and to the best of my knowledge he was the first to expand the universe beyond our own galaxy.

This is an important, observation-based idea, and it is new ideas that drive the scientific discovery process. What kind of mental calculations are necessary to introduce a new concept?

First, you must realize that there may be something wrong with what you have been taught - and this was not any easier in Kant's time than in our own.

Second, in order to conjure up a new explanation which might be scientific in nature, you must be able to do some good mental approximations, rejecting solutions which fail mental sanity checks. This takes a good analytical mind - just as important today as in Kant's times.

Finally, you must convince a reasonable number of your peers that the new prospective makes sense. No one would remember Kant if everyone threw away his work.

I humbly submit that these are the most difficult parts of the scientific process: Once others are convinced the idea has merit, it is possible to obtain the necessary funding to do the bean counting...which can even be trivial if the concept is truly correct.

As a philosopher of science, Kant is peerless.

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jwj

It's a big universe out there...is it really unwinding, really burning out?