EDITOR'S INTRODUCTION

Like the previous essay on the rotation of the earth, Kant wrote this essay during the summer of 1754 and published it in six successive issues of the Wöchentliche Königsbergische Frag- und Anzeigungs-Nachrichten, between August 10 and September 14 in 1754. In it he defines what it would mean for the earth to be ageing, warning in particular against anthropocentric conceptions. He also provides detailed evaluations of four different accounts of how the earth might be ageing and by what causal mechanisms: (1) by the rivers stripping fertile salts from the land and delivering them into the ocean, thereby robbing the land of its ability to grow and sustain life; (2) by the rivers depositing sediment into the sea, which raises the sea until it inundates the land; (3) by the decrease of water (from the oceans) and the resultant increase of land; (4) by the decrease and gradual exhaustion of a hypothetical general ‘world spirit’ that sustains all living beings on earth.

Kant rejects the first account, accepts the general idea, but not the quantitative estimations, of the second account, finds the details of the third account questionable, before giving a surprisingly positive endorsement of the final account, provided that the ‘world soul’ is understood in an appropriate way. He concludes by criticizing those who would appeal to comets to explain “all manner of extraordinary” events.