The Cambridge Companion to Kant's Critique of Pure Reason

Description

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. This Companion 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.

Paul Guyer is Professor of Philosophy and Florence R. C. Murray Professor in the Humanities at the University of Pennsylvania, where he has taught since 1982. He is the author or editor of fourteen previous books on Immanuel Kant, and co-general editor of the Cambridge Edition of the Works of Immanuel Kant, in which he has co-edited and co-translated the Critique of Pure Reason, the Critique of the Power of Judgment, and Notes and Fragments.

'... an excellent resource for any student of Kant. Classes centered on Kant's theoretical philosophy need but only two required texts: the Critique and this Companion. The isomorphic structure of the Companion renders it a superb supplement to the Critique, and I strongly recommend reading them in tandem. As such, the Companion provides a ready and useful tool for obtaining a substantial understanding of Kant's critical philosophy.' Alexander Bozzo, Kant-Studien