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The Critique of Pure Reason

J. M. D. Meiklejohn (1855)

Immanuel Kant's Critique of Pure Reason (Kritik der reinen Vernunft, first edition 1781, substantially revised 1787) is one of the most influential works in the history of philosophy and the founding document of his 'critical' philosophy. Seeking to end the deadlock between rationalism and empiricism, Kant argues that the mind actively structures experience through a priori forms of intuition (space and time) and categories of the understanding, so that we can have genuine knowledge only of appearances, never of things as they are in themselves. The translation is J. M. D. Meiklejohn's of 1855, long the standard English rendering.

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Contents

  1. Preface to the First Edition (1781)
  2. Preface to the Second Edition (1787)
  3. Introduction
  4. Transcendental Æsthetic
    1. Of Space
    2. Of Time
  5. Transcendental Logic
    1. Transcendental Analytic
    2. Book I: Analytic of Conceptions
    3. Of the Transcendental Clue to the Discovery of all Pure Conceptions of the Understanding
    4. Of the Logical Use of the Understanding in General
    5. Of the Logical Function of the Understanding in Judgements
    6. Of the Pure Conceptions of the Understanding, or Categories
    7. Of the Principles of a Transcendental Deduction in general
    8. Book II: Analytic of Principles
    9. Of the Schematism of the Pure Conceptions of the Understanding
    10. System of all Principles of the Pure Understanding
    11. Of the Supreme Principle of all Analytical Judgements
    12. Of the Supreme Principle of all Synthetical Judgements
    13. Systematic Representation of all Synthetical Principles of the Pure Understanding
    14. Transcendental Dialectic
    15. Book I: Of The Conceptions Of Pure Reason
    16. Of Transcendental Ideas
    17. System of Transcendental Ideas
    18. Book II: Of The Dialectical Procedure Of Pure Reason
    19. Of the Paralogisms of Pure Reason
    20. The Antinomy of Pure Reason
    21. System of Cosmological Ideas
    22. Antithetic of Pure Reason
    23. Of the Interest of Reason in these Self-contradictions
    24. Of the necessity imposed upon Pure Reason of presenting a Solution of its Transcendental Problems
    25. Sceptical Exposition of the Cosmological Problems presented in the four Transcendental Ideas
    26. Transcendental Idealism as the Key to the Solution of Pure Cosmological Dialectic
    27. Critical Solution of the Cosmological Problem
    28. Regulative Principle of Pure Reason in relation to the Cosmological Ideas
    29. Of the Empirical Use of the Regulative Principle of Reason with regard to the Cosmological Ideas
    30. Of the Ideal in General
    31. Of the Transcendental Ideal (Prototypon Trancendentale)
    32. Of the Arguments employed by Speculative Reason in Proof of the Existence of a Supreme Being
    33. Of the Impossibility of an Ontological Proof of the Existence of God
    34. Of the Impossibility of a Cosmological Proof of the Existence of God
    35. Of the Impossibility of a Physico-Theological Proof
    36. Critique of all Theology based upon Speculative Principles of Reason
  6. Transcendental Doctrine of Method
    1. The Discipline of Pure Reason
    2. The Discipline of Pure Reason in the Sphere of Dogmatism
    3. The Discipline of Pure Reason in Polemics
    4. The Discipline of Pure Reason in Hypothesis
    5. The Discipline of Pure Reason in Relation to Proofs
    6. The Canon of Pure Reason
    7. Of the Ultimate End of the Pure Use of Reason
    8. Of the Ideal of the Summum Bonum as a Determining Ground of the Ultimate End of Pure Reason
    9. Of Opinion, Knowledge, and Belief
    10. The Architectonic of Pure Reason
    11. The History of Pure Reason