Marx-Economist, Philosopher, Jew: Steps in the Development of a Doctrine

Murray Wolfson

Macmillan Press, Ltd.

The Critique of Pure Reason (German: Kritik der reinen Vernunft, KrV) by Immanuel Kant, (first published in 1781, second edition 1787), is one of the most influential works in the history of philosophy. Also referred to as Kant's First Critique, it was followed by the Critique of Practical Reason (1788) and the Critique of Judgment (1790). In the preface to the first edition Kant explains what he means by a critique of pure reason: "I do not mean by this a critique of books and systems, but of the faculty of reason in general, in respect of all knowledge after which it may strive independently of all experience." Dealing with questions concerning the foundations and extent of human knowledge, Kant builds on the work of empiricist philosophers such as John Locke and David Hume, as well as taking into account the theories of rationalist philosophers such as Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz and Christian Wolff. Kant expounds new ideas on the nature of space and time, and claims to solve the problem which Hume posed regarding human knowledge of the relation of cause and effect, and to have assessed the ability of the human mind to engage in metaphysics. Knowledge independent of experience is referred to by Kant as "a priori" knowledge, while knowledge obtained through experience is termed "a posteriori". According to Kant, "a priori" knowledge expresses necessary truths. Statements which are necessarily true cannot be negated without becoming false. Examples provided by Kant include the propositions of mathematics, propositions "from the understanding in its quite ordinary employment", such as "Every alteration must have a cause", as well as propositions from "natural science (physics)", such as "in all changes in the material world the quantity of matter remains unchanged". Kant believed that he had discovered another attribute of propositions, which allowed him to frame the problem of a priori knowledge in a new way: the distinction between "analytic" and "synthetic" judgments. According to Kant, to say that a sentence is "analytic" is to say that what is stated in the predicate-concept of the sentence is already contained (albeit covertly) in the subject-concept of that sentence. The example he provides is the sentence, "All bodies are extended", which is "analytic" since the predicate-concept ("extended") is already contained in—or "thought in"—the subject-concept of the sentence ("bodies"). Kant considered the judgment, "All bodies are heavy" synthetic, since "I do not include in the concept of body in general the predicate 'weight'". Synthetic judgments therefore add something to a concept, whereas analytic judgments only explain what is already contained in the concept. The distinctive character of "analytic" judgments was therefore that they can be known to be true simply by an analysis of the concepts contained in them—or, alternatively, are true by definition. Prior to Kant, it was thought that all necessary truth had the character of being "analytic". Kant argued that not all necessary truths are analytic, but that some of them are synthetic. Having explained that the basis of analytic judgments lies in the principle of contradiction, (or the principle of identity), the task he set out to achieve in the Critique of Pure Reason was to explain the grounds of those judgments which are necessary and synthetic—and these he termed "a priori synthetic judgments".

Immanuel Kant's Critique of Pure Reason

Politics & Social Sciences

Immanuel; translated by Norman Kemp Smit

Philosophy

<p>This is the story of the Swedish royal ship Wasa, a man-of-war of 64 guns, and of the misfortunes that befell her. She sank as she was starting her maiden voyage on August 10, 1628, while still inside Stockholm harbor. She was raised again in 1961 and is now on exhibition in Stockholm. What was at the time a catastrophe has thus acquired a sort of happy ending and provides us with a fascinating backward glance into history.</p>

The Swedish Warship Wasa

History

Kvarning, Lars-Åke

Ohrelius, Bengt

Military

Beyond the conventions of accounting

Gambling, Trevor

Hooligan: A History of Respectable Fears

Pearson, Geoffrey

Social Sciences

<p>. MacMillan, clean copy, ex lib bookplate stamps etc, no other markings, with inner edge of dustjacket trimmed, Professional booksellers since 1981</p>

Kalam Cosmological Argument (Library of Philosophy & Religion)

Craig, William Lane

CHENIESE FAMILY AND KINSHIP.

Unknown, Author

Early Medieval Spain: Unity in Diversity, 400-1000 (New studies in medieval history)

Early Medieval Spain (New Studies in Medieval History)

Collins, Roger

Americas

Morality and the Inner Life

Dilman, İlham

Interfacing to Microprocessors (Computer Science Series)

John Charles Cluley

Computers & Technology

See the best price to sell, buy or rent books by the Macmillan Press, Ltd. publisher. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Macmillan Press, Ltd.