Abstract

Edmund Husserl’s Nachlass includes a text enclosed in an envelope on which is written: “Overthrow of the Copernican theory in usual interpretation of a world view. The original ark, earth, does not move.” This text was chosen to be one of the first posthumous publications of Husserl. The editor, however, chose to use a less controversial title: “Foundational Investigations of the Phenomenological Origin of the Spatiality of Nature.” The title nevertheless does not change the radicality of the text itself; it boldly claims that the earth does not move. Husserl knew that with such a statement he risked becoming a laughing stock. For the Western scientific community the Copernican view of the earth’s movement is the symbol of the victory of science over common sense views and religion.