The Cambridge Companion to Kant's Critique of Pure Reason

by Paul Guyer (Editor)

Immanuel Kant’s Critique of Pure Reason, first published in 1781, is one of the landmarks of Western philosophy, a radical departure from everything that went before and an inescapable influence on all philosophy since its publication. In this massive work, Kant has three aims. First, he constructs a new theory of knowledge that delivers certainty about the fundamental principles of human experience at the cost of knowledge of how things are in themselves. Second, he delivers a devastating critique of traditional “speculative” metaphysics on the basis of his new theory of knowledge. Third, he suggests how the core beliefs of the Western metaphysical tradition that cannot be justified as theoretical knowledge can, nevertheless, be justified as objects of “moral faith” because they are the necessary conditions of the possibility of moral agency. Kant started this third project in the Critique of Pure Reason but would go on to complete it in two other works, Critique of Practical Reason and Critique of the Power of Judgment. The Cambridge Companion to Kant’s Critique of Pure Reason is the first collective commentary on this work in English. The seventeen chapters have been written by an international team of scholars, including some of the best-known figures in the field as well as emerging younger talents. The first two chapters situate Kant’s project against the background of Continental rationalism and British empiricism, the dominant schools of early modern philosophy. Eleven chapters then expound and assess all the main arguments of the Critique. Finally, four chapters recount the enormous influence of the Critique on subsequent philosophical movements, including German Idealism and Neo-Kantianism, twentieth-century Continental philosophy, and twentieth century Anglo-American analytic philosophy. The book concludes with an extensive bibliography.

Genres: Philosophy, Nonfiction, Reference, Essays, Ebooks

476 pages, Paperback

First published June 14, 2010

About the author

Paul Guyer is an American philosopher. He is a leading scholar of Immanuel Kant and of aesthetics and has served as Jonathan Nelson Professor of Philosophy and Humanities at Brown University since 2012.

Guyer has written nine books on Kant and Kantian themes, and has edited and translated a number of Kant's works into English. In addition to his work on Kant, Guyer has published on many other figures in the history of philosophy, including Locke, Hume, Hegel, Schopenhauer, and others. Guyer's Kant and The Claims of Knowledge (Cambridge University Press) is widely considered to be one of the most significant works in Kant scholarship. Recent works by Guyer include Knowledge, Reason, and Taste: Kant's Response to Hume (Princeton University Press), and The Cambridge Companion to Kant's Critique of Pure Reason (Cambridge University Press).

His other areas of specialty include the history of philosophy and aesthetics. His three-volume work A History of Modern Aesthetics was published by Cambridge University Press in February 2014. Guyer was President of the American Society for Aesthetics in 2011–13. Guyer was also President of the Eastern Division of the American Philosophical Association in 2011-12.

Reviews

[Josh · Rating 4 out of 5]

A useful collection of essays on the context, sections, and impact of the first Kritik.

[Hagar · Rating 5 out of 5]

Perfect companion to Kant's Critique of Pure Reason.

[An · Rating 4 out of 5]

Està bé, tots els textos són prou bons (tampoc tinc la formació per criticar res) i t'acompanyen al llarg de la lectura. L'únic retret que tinc és que m'hagués agradat que la part sobre l'Analítica Transcendental hagués tingut més pes (i, per exemple jo no necessito tanta introducció ni tants capítols dedicats a la recepció), però és per gust personal.

[Plato · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very nice collection of essays on the KrV.