A Copernican Revolution in IS: Using Kant's Critique of Pure Reason for Describing Epistemological Trends in IS

The purpose of this exploratory paper is to show the consequence of applying the Copernican Revolution represented by the Critique of the Pure Reason to IS. This revolution has three important implications. First, it implicitly makes a clear distinction between the object of knowledge and the origin of knowledge. Second, it implicitly goes beyond the classical alternatives between perception and understanding, on one hand, and reason and experience, on the other hand. Third, it defines nine potential epistemological trends, from the “normative explanation” to the “critical distinction”. Each of these trends has a specific purpose, from the “phenomena principles” to the “distinctive conditions of possibility”. This grid may be therefore used in future researches to describe the actual epistemological trends used in IS... and to focus on those who could be used.