The Unity of Reason: Essays on Kant’s Philosophy

by Dieter Henrich, Richard Velkley (Editor)

Kant holds a key position in the history of modern philosophy as the last great figure to belong fully to both the Anglo-American analytic tradition and the Continental tradition. As the world's foremost scholar of Kant and German Idealism, Dieter Henrich combines an encyclopedic knowledge of Kant's texts with an equally profound understanding of the philosophers of preceding and succeeding centuries. In this collection comprising four of his most influential essays, Henrich proves himself unique in the conjunction of philosophical acumen, insight, and originality that he brings to Kant interpretation.

Henrich's distinctive contribution has been to break through the entrenched stereotypes of the ontological and neo-Kantian schools of Kant interpretation in order to place Kant's major ideas in their historical and developmental context, demonstrating their enduring philosophical significance. Henrich has shown how Kant's attempt to overcome the dichotomy between rationalism and moral-sense philosophy led to a lifelong struggle to establish the unity of theoretical and practical reason and the inseparability of the motivational force of the principle of ethics from its function as a principle for ethical judgment. But Henrich has also shown how Kant's project of unification contained fundamental tensions that called forth the projects of such post-Kantians as Schiller, Fichte, and Hegel, which explored new approaches within the Kantian framework.

The heart of Henrich's interpretation of Kant, the essays in this book present a persuasive picture of the development of Kant's moral philosophy and give an account of the argumentative strategies determining all the aspects of Kant's philosophy. They reflect Henrich's general interest in the unity of reason as well as his special interest in self-consciousness as both a key concept of modern philosophy and the key to the highly disputed interpretation of Kant's transcendental deduction of categories.

Genres: Philosophy

256 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1994

About the author

Geboren am 5. Januar 1927 in Marburg, studierte Dieter Henrich von 1946 bis 1950 in Marburg, Frankfurt und Heidelberg (u.a. bei Hans-Georg Gadamer) Philosophie. 1950 Dissertation: Die Grundlagen der Wissenschaftslehre Max Webers.
Nach der Habilitation 1955/56 Lehrtätigkeiten als ordentlicher Professor in Berlin (ab 1960) und Heidelberg (ab 1965), Gastprofessuren in den USA ( Harvard, Columbia, University of Michigan, Yale); 1981 Berufung an die Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität in München, Ordinarius für Philosophie bis zur Emeritierung 1994. Seit 1997 Honorarprofessor an der Berliner Humboldt-Universität.
Auszeichnungen:
1995 Friedrich-Hölderlin-Preis
2003 Hegel-Preis der Stadt Stuttgart
2004 Internationaler Kant-Preis der ZEIT-Stiftung
2006 Deutscher Sprachpreis
2008 Leopold-Lucas-Preis der Universität Tübingen

(Source: Suhrkamp Verlag)

Reviews

[Dan DalMonte · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a difficult but very rich book. Henrich discusses Heidegger's view that the imagination is the common root of the faculties of the understanding and sensibility. I do not see the imagination as the root so much as the bridge that connects the abstract framework of the categories to their spatiotemporal realization in sensibility. Henrich also discusses how the Transcendental Deduction is supposed to work. All representations must fall under the "I think" of self-consciousness. As a result, all representations must fall under the categories of the understanding. The categories of the understanding are not cognitively empty, but instead are the necessary a priori ground of all intuition. This book is very rich and deserves a second reading.

[Josh · Rating 4 out of 5]

An excellent little collection of essays by Henrich, who remains one of the best interpreters of German Idealism (in German and English) of the last century.

[saml · Rating 3 out of 5]

second book i've read called "the unity of reason". really hope for a third one day