
The Critique of Pure Reason
'The Critique of Pure Reason' Summary
Kant's rejection of Hume's empiricism
Before Hume, rationalists had held that effect could be deduced from cause; Hume argued that it could not and from this inferred that nothing at all could be known a priori in relation to cause and effect. Kant, who was brought up under the auspices of rationalism, was deeply disturbed by Hume's skepticism. "I freely admit that it was the remembrance of David Hume which, many years ago, first interrupted my dogmatic slumber and gave my investigations in the field of speculative philosophy a completely different direction."
Kant decided to find an answer and spent at least twelve years thinking about the subject. Although the Critique of Pure Reason was set down in written form in just four to five months, while Kant was also lecturing and teaching, the work is a summation of the development of Kant's philosophy throughout that twelve-year period.
Kant's work was stimulated by his decision to take seriously Hume's skeptical conclusions about such basic principles as cause and effect, which had implications for Kant's grounding in rationalism. In Kant's view, Hume's skepticism rested on the premise that all ideas are presentations of sensory experience. The problem that Hume identified was that basic principles such as causality cannot be derived from sense experience only: experience shows only that one event regularly succeeds another, not that it is caused by it.
In section VI ("The General Problem of Pure Reason") of the introduction to the Critique of Pure Reason, Kant explains that Hume stopped short of considering that a synthetic judgment could be made 'a priori'. Kant's goal was to find some way to derive cause and effect without relying on empirical knowledge. Kant rejects analytical methods for this, arguing that analytic reasoning cannot tell us anything that is not already self-evident, so his goal was to find a way to demonstrate how the synthetic a priori is possible.
To accomplish this goal, Kant argued that it would be necessary to use synthetic reasoning. However, this posed a new problem: how is it possible to have synthetic knowledge that is not based on empirical observation; that is, how are synthetic a priori truths possible? This question is exceedingly important, Kant maintains, because he contends that all important metaphysical knowledge is of synthetic a priori propositions. If it is impossible to determine which synthetic a priori propositions are true, he argues, then metaphysics as a discipline is impossible. The remainder of the Critique of Pure Reason is devoted to examining whether and how knowledge of synthetic a priori propositions is possible.
Book Details
Language
EnglishOriginal Language
GermanPublished In
1781Authors

Immanuel Kant
Prussia
Immanuel Kant was a German philosopher and one of the central Enlightenment thinkers. Kant's comprehensive and systematic works in epistemology, metaphysics, ethics, and aesthetics have made him one o...
Books by Immanuel KantDownload eBooks
Listen/Download Audiobook
- Select Speed
Related books

A Treatise on Good Works by Martin Luther
In this exposition of the Ten Commandments, Martin Luther attempts to build a bridge between justification by faith and the life of the Christian mani...

Kaushitaki Upanishad by Anonymous
The Kaushitaki Upanishad is an ancient Sanskrit text that explores fundamental questions about the nature of reality, consciousness, and the human con...

Essay Concerning Humane Understanding Book I by John Locke
John Locke's philosophical text posits an empiricist theory of knowledge which argues that one's ideas originate from experience, not from innate prin...

Vedanta-Sutras with the Commentary by Sankaracarya, Volume 1 by Bādarāyaṇa
The Vedanta Sutras, or Brahma Sutras as they are also known, are a Sanskrit text attributed to the sage Badarayana (also known as Vyasa) written somet...

Six Books of Proclus, the Platonic Successor, on the Theology of Plato by Thomas Taylor
This book is a translation of Proclus's seminal work, "The Theology of Plato." Proclus, a 5th-century Neoplatonist philosopher, aimed to present a sys...

The Rosicrucian Mysteries by Max Heindel
A primer for those interested in the basic philosophy, beliefs & secrets of the Rosicrucians.

Against Celsus Book 4 by Origen of Alexandria
Against Celsus, preserved entirely in Greek, is a major apologetics work by the Church Father Origen of Alexandria, written in around 248 AD, counteri...

Rational Theology and Christian Philosophy volume 2 by John Tulloch
This volume delves into the intellectual landscape of 17th-century England, focusing on the Cambridge Platonists, a group of theologians known for the...

The Prince by Niccolò Machiavelli
Machiavelli has created a ruthless guide on how to rule the country in his volume "The Prince". The book is dedicated to Lorenzo De Medici, the ruler...

General Principle of Relativity: In Its Philosophical and Historical Aspect by Herbert Wildon Carr
Herbert Wildon Carr's "General Principle of Relativity" explores the philosophical and historical context of Einstein's revolutionary theory. Carr del...
Reviews for The Critique of Pure Reason
No reviews posted or approved, yet...