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The Standard account of Kant's philosophy is that it effects a reconciliation between the claims of empiricism and rationalism. Kant balances his criticism of the rationalist attempt to gain knowledge of objects completely independently of experience with an equally powerful critique of a simplistic empiricist account of the nature of empirical knowledge. Empirical knowledge, Kant argues, requires the mobilization of a whole set of concepts that do not themselves arise out of experience. To these concepts, Kant gives the title" Categories" and claims that they are, so to speak, the a priori furniture of the human mind. Even if one has reservations about the ultimate validity of Kant's argument, one must acknowledge the subtlety of his moves in effecting such a reconciliation. On turning to the Standard view of Kant's philosophy of science, one cannot but be surprised by the contrast. For here, rather than effecting a subtle …