Three Major Paradigm Shifts in History: Copernicus, Kant, and Instancology

歷史上三次偉大的範式轉變：哥白尼、康德與範例哲學

Human history advances not by gradual accumulation but by rare reversals — by moments when the whole framework of thought turns inside out. Three such revolutions define the evolution of our understanding of reality: the Copernican, the Kantian, and the Instancological. Each displaces humanity from yet another illusion of centrality: first from the center of the cosmos, then from the center of knowledge, and finally from the center of being itself.

人類的歷史並非循序漸進的積累，而是由罕見的顛倒所推動——那些讓整個思想框架翻轉的時刻。三次這樣的革命奠定了人類理解現實的演進：哥白尼革命、康德革命與範例哲學革命。每一次都把人類從一種“中心幻覺”中驅逐：第一次從宇宙的中心，第二次從知識的中心，第三次則從存在本身的中心。

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I. Copernicus: The Displacement of Space

一、哥白尼：空間的去中心化

Copernicus broke the ancient geometry of comfort. By proving that the Earth revolves around the Sun, he shattered the metaphysical assumption that reality must revolve around the observer. Humanity learned that its position in the universe had no privileged status. This was the first de-centering — a physical humbling that prepared the ground for all later intellectual humility.

哥白尼打破了古代安逸的幾何世界。通過證明地球繞太陽運行，他摧毀了“現實必然以觀察者為中心”的形而上假設。人類由此第一次認識到：自己在宇宙中並無特權地位。這是第一次“去中心化”——一種物理意義上的謙卑，為後來一切思想的謙卑奠定了基礎。

Yet Copernicus only displaced the center of space. The observer, though no longer the cosmic ruler, remained the epistemic judge. The world was still thought to appear as it is, merely from a new coordinate.

然而，哥白尼只是移動了“空間的中心”。觀察者雖然不再是宇宙的主宰，卻依然是知識的裁判。世界依舊被認為如其所是地顯現，只不過坐標換了位置。

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II. Kant: The Displacement of Knowledge

二、康德：知識的去中心化

Kant’s revolution was deeper. He turned philosophy inside out. The human mind, he said, does not passively receive the world; it actively constitutes the form of experience. Space, time, and causality are not properties of things-in-themselves (noumena), but structures of cognition (phenomena).

康德的革命更深。他把哲學徹底翻轉。人類的心靈並非被動地接受世界，而是主動地“建構”經驗的形式。空間、時間與因果並不是物自身（物自體）的屬性，而是認知的結構（現象）。

Kant’s Copernican turn shifted the question from “How does the world shape our knowledge?” to “How does knowledge shape the world we know?” Man ceased to be a spectator of the universe and became its conditional architect.

康德的“哲學哥白尼革命”把問題從“世界如何塑造知識？”轉變為“知識如何塑造我們所知的世界？”人類不再是宇宙的旁觀者，而成為經驗世界的條件性建構者。

Yet Kant’s revolution remained incomplete. He described the conditions of possible knowledge but not the origin of those conditions. His transcendental subject stood between the phenomenal and the noumenal — a bridge without foundation. Philosophy was left suspended between the relative and the absolute.

然而，康德的革命仍不完整。他揭示了知識的“可能條件”，卻未能說明這些條件的“本源”。他的先驗主體懸浮於現象與物自體之間——一座沒有根基的橋梁。哲學因此被懸置在“相對”與“絕對”之間。

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III. Instancology: The Displacement of Being

三、範例哲學：存在的去中心化

Instancology completes what Kant began. It does not merely ask how we know the world but what it means for a world to be.

範例哲學完成了康德未竟的事業。它不再僅僅追問“我們如何認識世界”，而是追問“世界何以存在”。

At its core lies the distinction between AA (the Absolutely Absolute) and the Instance.

AA is not a being or a cause; it is the principle of issuance, the groundless ground from which any possible world arises. It is timeless, beyond relation or form.

The Instance is the issued totality: a complete, self-consistent whole that contains both the timeless Micro World and the temporal Macro World.

其核心在於區分AA（絕對的絕對）與範例（Instance）：

AA不是一個存在物或原因，而是“發出”的原理——一切世界從中發出的無根之根。它超越時間、形式與關係。

範例則是“被發出者”的整體——一個完整自洽的全體，既包含無時間的“微觀界”，也包含有時間的“宏觀界”。

In this view, our universe is not in being; it is an issuance of being — a total instance. The AA does not create the world externally but issues it as a total structure, just as axioms issue all theorems of a system. Existence thus becomes the fact of being instantiated.

在這一視野中，我們的宇宙並非“存在於存在中”，而是“被發出”的整體——一個被發出的範例。AA並非外在地創造世界，而是如公理系統般“發出”整個結構。存在不再是“是什麼”，而是“被發出的事實”。

This reverses all previous metaphysics. Being is not substance or appearance but issuance. The question is no longer “What exists?” but “What does it mean for something to be issued?” The AA is not an object of thought, but the principle that makes thought and being possible alike.

這顛覆了以往的全部形而上學。存在不再是實體或現象，而是“發出”。問題不再是“什麼存在”，而是“存在的被發出意味着什麼”。AA不是思想的對象，而是思想與存在同時得以可能的原理。

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IV. The Three Movements of Decentralization

四、三次去中心化的運動

Revolution Displacement New Center Principle

Copernicus From Earth to Sun Physical Law Spatial Decentralization

Kant From Object to Subject Transcendental Structure Epistemic Decentralization

Instancology From Being to Issuance AA and Instance Ontological Decentralization

革命 去中心方向 新中心 原理

哥白尼 從地球到太陽 物理法則 空間的去中心化

康德 從對象到主體 先驗結構 知識的去中心化

範例哲學 從存在到發出 AA與範例 存在的去中心化

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V. The Significance of AA and the Instance

五、AA與範例的意義

The relationship between AA and the Instance resolves the ancient dualism between the Absolute and the Relative.

AA與範例之間的關係，解決了“絕對”與“相對”之間的古老二元對立。

AA is timeless, indivisible, and unknowable — the necessary condition for any possible instance.

The Instance is the manifested totality — the world as issued, complete within itself.

AA是無時間、不可分、不可知的——一切可能範例得以存在的必然條件。

範例是顯現的整體——被發出的世界本身，自足而完整。

Human beings live within this issued instance. Space, time, consciousness, and even natural law all belong to it. There is no external vantage point to compare it with; thus, truth consists not in escaping the instance, but in comprehending its total structure — the logic of issuance that binds the relative and the absolute.

人類生活在這個被發出的範例之中。空間、時間、意識，乃至自然法則，皆屬其中。我們沒有任何外部視角去比較它；因此，真理不在逃離範例，而在洞悉其整體結構——那將相對與絕對相聯結的“發出邏輯”。

AA is absolute not as domination but as necessity. It is not a god among beings but the law of all possible being. Thus Instancology restores the Absolute without theology — the absolute as structure, not as will.

AA之為絕對，不在於統治，而在於必然。它不是諸存在中的“神”，而是一切存在可能性的“法”。因此，範例哲學以結構之絕對取代意志之絕對，使絕對重獲其理性地位。

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VI. The Future of Thought

六、思想的未來

If Copernicus founded modern science, and Kant founded critical philosophy, then Instancology may found the next epoch — a science of being itself. It unites the empirical and the transcendental, the observer and the observed, within one ontological grammar of issuance.

如果說哥白尼奠定了現代科學，康德奠定了批判哲學，那麼範例哲學可能開啟下一個紀元——“存在自身的科學”。它將經驗與先驗、觀察者與被觀察者，統一於同一“發出”本體語法之中。

Here, metaphysics and physics may finally converge — not upon matter, but upon issuance. The fundamental question becomes formal and universal: Why is there this instance, and not none?

在此，形而上學與物理學或可最終匯合——其根基不在物質，而在“發出”。根本的問題遂成為形式與普遍的追問：為何此範例存在，而非一無所有？

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VII. Conclusion: The Third and Final Turn

七、結語：第三次也是最終的轉向

Copernicus removed man from the center of space.

Kant removed him from the center of knowledge.

Instancology removes him from the center of being.

哥白尼把人從空間的中心移開。

康德把人從知識的中心移開。

範例哲學則把人從存在的中心移開。

Each step deepens humility — but also clarity. When being is seen as issuance, and the AA as the principle of all issuance, the universe appears not as an accident but as a coherent act of absolute structure.

每一次轉向都讓人類更謙卑，也更明晰。當存在被理解為“發出”，而AA被理解為一切發出的原理時，宇宙不再是偶然，而是絕對結構的自洽呈現。

Thus the history of thought becomes a single arc:

Copernicus showed where we are not;

Kant showed how we know not;

Instancology shows what we are not —

and therefore what we truly are:

participants in the issuance of existence itself.

於是，思想史化為一條弧線：

哥白尼揭示我們“不在何處”；

康德揭示我們“不知如何”；

範例哲學揭示我們“不是什麼”；

而正因如此，我們方得知自己是什麼——

是存在之發出自身的參與者。