The Critique of Pure Reason

The Critique of Pure Reason, first published in 1781 with a second edition in 1787, has been called the most influential and important philosophical text of the modern age.

Kant saw the Critique of Pure Reason as an attempt to bridge the gap between rationalism (there are significant ways in which our concepts and knowledge are gained independently of sense experience) and empiricism (sense experience is the ultimate source of all our concepts and knowledge) and, in particular, to counter the radical empiricism of David Hume (our beliefs are purely the result of accumulated habits, developed in response to accumulated sense experiences). Using the methods of science, Kant demonstrates that though each mind may, indeed, create its own universe, those universes are guided by certain common laws, which are rationally discernable.

By : Immanuel Kant (1724 - 1804), translated by John Miller Dow Meiklejohn (1836 - 1902)

01 - The Critique of Pure Reason 02 - Preface to the Second Edition, 1787 03 - Introduction 04 - Trancendental Aesthetic - Introductory - Of Space 05 -Transcendental Doctrine of Elements--Time 06 - Transcendental Logic 07 - Transcendental Analytic 08 - Deduction of the Pure Conceptions 09 - Transcendental Deduction of the pure Conceptions of the Understanding. SS 11 10 - Application of the Categories to Objects of the Senses 11 - Analytic of Principles / Schematism 12 - System of All Principles of the Pure Understanding 13 - Systematic Representation of All Synthetical Principles/1st Analogy 14 - Second Analogy 15 - Third Analogy 16 - The Postulates of Empirical Thought 17 - Division of All Objects into Phenomena and Noumena 18 - Appendix: Of the equivocal Nature of Amphiboly 19 - Remark on the Amphiboly of the Conceptions of Reflections 20 - Transcendental Dialectic: Introduction 21 - Of the Conceptions of Pure Reason 22 - Of the Dialectical Procedure of Pure Reason 23 - Of the Paralogisms of Pure Reason 24 - The Antinomy of Pure Reason 25 - Antithetic of Pure Reason/1st and 2nd Conflicts 26 - 3rd and 4th Conflict of the Transcendental Ideas 27 - Of the Interest of Reason in these Self-Contradictions 28 - Of the Necessity Imposed upon Pure Reason of Presenting a Solution of its Transcendental... 29 - Critical Solution of the Cosmological Problem 30 - Empirical Use of the Regulative Principle of Reason with regard to the Cosmological Ideas 31 - Solution of the Cosmological Idea of the Totality of the Deduction of C 32 - Solution of the Cosmological Idea of the Totality of the Dependence of Phenomenal Existences 33 - The Ideal of Pure Reason 34 - Of the Arguments Employed by Speculative Reason in Proof of the Existence of a Supreme Being 35 - Of the Impossibility of a Cosmological Proof of the Existence of God 36 - Of the Impossibility of a Physico-Theological Proof 37 - Of the Regulative Employment of the Ideas of Pure Reason 38 - Of the Ultimate End of the Natural Dialectic of Pure Reason 39 - Transcendental Doctrine of Method 40 - Discipline of Pure Reason in the Sphere of Dogmatism 41 - Discipline of Pure Reason in Polemics scipline of Pure Reason in Polemics 42 - Discipline of Pure Reason in Hypothesis 43 - Discipline of Pure Reason in Relation to Proofs 44 - The Canon of Pure Reason 45 - Ideal of the Summum Bonum as a Determining Ground of the Ultimate End of Pure Reason 46 - Of Opinion, Knowledge and Belief 47 - The Architectonic of Pure Reason 48 - The History of Pure Reason

The Critique of Pure Reason is arranged around several basic distinctions. After the two Prefaces (the A edition Preface of 1781 and the B edition Preface of 1787) and the Introduction, the book is divided into the Doctrine of Elements and the Doctrine of Method:

The Doctrine of Elements sets out the a priori products of the mind, and the correct and incorrect use of these presentations. Kant further divides the Doctrine of Elements into the Transcendental Aesthetic and the Transcendental Logic, reflecting his basic distinction between sensibility and the understanding. In the Transcendental Aesthetic he argues that space and time are pure forms of intuition inherent in our faculty of sense. The Transcendental Logic is separated into the Transcendental Analytic and the Transcendental Dialectic:

The Transcendental Analytic sets forth the appropriate uses of a priori concepts, called the categories, and other principles of the understanding, as conditions of the possibility of a science of metaphysics. The section titled the Metaphysical Deduction considers the origin of the categories. In the Transcendental Deduction, Kant then shows the application of the categories to experience. Next, the Analytic of Principles sets out arguments for the relation of the categories to metaphysical principles. This section begins with the Schematism, which describes how the imagination can apply pure concepts to the object given in sense perception. Next are arguments relating the a priori principles with the schematized categories.

The Transcendental Dialectic describes the transcendental illusion behind the misuse of these principles in attempts to apply them to realms beyond sense experience. Kant’s most significant arguments are the Paralogisms of Pure Reason, the Antinomy of Pure Reason, and the Ideal of Pure Reason, aimed against, respectively, traditional theories of the soul, the universe as a whole, and the existence of God. In the Appendix to the Critique of Speculative Theology Kant describes the role of the transcendental ideas of reason.

The Doctrine of Method contains four sections. The first section, Discipline of Pure Reason, compares mathematical and logical methods of proof, and the second section, Canon of Pure Reason, distinguishes theoretical from practical reason.