What do you think?
Rate this book
Kant: A Revolution in Thinking
A foremost Kant expert takes us on a lively tour through the revolutionary ideas of the founder of modern philosophy.
Immanuel Kant is undoubtedly the most important philosopher of the modern era. His Critique of Pure Reason, “categorical imperative,” and conception of perpetual peace in the global order decisively influenced both intellectual history and twentieth-century politics, shaping everything from the German Constitution to the United Nations Charter.
Renowned philosopher Marcus Willaschek explains why, three centuries after Kant’s birth, his reflections on democracy, beauty, nature, morality, and the limits of human knowledge remain so profoundly relevant. Weaving biographical and historical context together with exposition of key ideas, Willaschek emphasizes three central features of Kant’s theory and method. First, Kant combines seemingly incompatible positions to show how their insights can be reconciled. Second, he demonstrates that it is not only human thinking that must adjust to the realities of the world; the world must also be fitted to the structures of our thinking. Finally, he overcomes the traditional opposition between thought and action by putting theory at the service of practice.
In A Revolution in Thinking, even readers having no prior acquaintance with Kant’s ideas or with philosophy generally will find an adroit introduction to the Prussian polymath’s oeuvre, beginning with his political arguments, expanding to his moral theory, and finally moving to his more abstract considerations of natural science, epistemology, and metaphysics. Along the way, Kant himself emerges from beneath his famed works, revealing a magnetic personality, a clever ironist, and a man deeply engaged with his contemporary world.
Immanuel Kant is undoubtedly the most important philosopher of the modern era. His Critique of Pure Reason, “categorical imperative,” and conception of perpetual peace in the global order decisively influenced both intellectual history and twentieth-century politics, shaping everything from the German Constitution to the United Nations Charter.
Renowned philosopher Marcus Willaschek explains why, three centuries after Kant’s birth, his reflections on democracy, beauty, nature, morality, and the limits of human knowledge remain so profoundly relevant. Weaving biographical and historical context together with exposition of key ideas, Willaschek emphasizes three central features of Kant’s theory and method. First, Kant combines seemingly incompatible positions to show how their insights can be reconciled. Second, he demonstrates that it is not only human thinking that must adjust to the realities of the world; the world must also be fitted to the structures of our thinking. Finally, he overcomes the traditional opposition between thought and action by putting theory at the service of practice.
In A Revolution in Thinking, even readers having no prior acquaintance with Kant’s ideas or with philosophy generally will find an adroit introduction to the Prussian polymath’s oeuvre, beginning with his political arguments, expanding to his moral theory, and finally moving to his more abstract considerations of natural science, epistemology, and metaphysics. Along the way, Kant himself emerges from beneath his famed works, revealing a magnetic personality, a clever ironist, and a man deeply engaged with his contemporary world.
416 pages, Hardcover
Published September 16, 2025
117 people are currently reading
641 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
November 17, 2025
This book mentioned that the left-right-handed chirality problem highlighted by Kant and how that logic became part of the Thalidomide tragedy of the 1960s and was not revealed until the chirality of a molecule was considered and America was spared suffering because of one woman researcher who realized that chirality makes a difference.
Kant is well worth reading about always. For Kant it is never the thing-itself it is about the thing. Our thoughts are always about something. Also, with Kant there is always the awareness of do we think something is funny because we laugh, or do we laugh at something because it’s funny? Is our existence actualized by our thinking or does our thinking make for our existence? There is an ontological difference between appearance and reality and that spot within us leads to the false assurance of certainty of self that is the thing-in-itself. Hegel takes this a further step in “Phenomenology of Mind.”
This book read as a well-presented Great Course lecture on Kant and his ideas. That makes this book worthwhile by itself. The appearance is as vital as the thing-in-itself. Synthetic (feelings) and analytic (logic) dichotomy rubs against the thought content and intuition concept divide.
The universal, necessary and the certain lead to anti-realism and for Kant he realizes it is our transcendental deduction that centralizes the faculty of knowledge as the nexus for space, time, and intuition. There’ll never be a Newton for a blade of grass, according to Kant, of course, Darwin disagrees.
The author connected dots that I could not get at by reading Kant’s complete works. Kant gives a movement from spiritualism to religious certainty then to non-certainty and it seems to me Kant was more of an atheist than the author seemed to believe. He’s the expert, I’m not.
I probably lean more toward making Kant my favorite of all philosophers. He is the first to no longer think that the truth is out there and relocated truth within us. Descartes assumes the world away by his cogito, Kant brings the world back and places us in it; Kant ridicules Anslem through realizing existence is not a predicate. The Copernican revolution of the mind was a good first step and Kant started that ball rolling. Hume and Leibnitz needed a synthesis and Kant provides it.
Kant is well worth reading about always. For Kant it is never the thing-itself it is about the thing. Our thoughts are always about something. Also, with Kant there is always the awareness of do we think something is funny because we laugh, or do we laugh at something because it’s funny? Is our existence actualized by our thinking or does our thinking make for our existence? There is an ontological difference between appearance and reality and that spot within us leads to the false assurance of certainty of self that is the thing-in-itself. Hegel takes this a further step in “Phenomenology of Mind.”
This book read as a well-presented Great Course lecture on Kant and his ideas. That makes this book worthwhile by itself. The appearance is as vital as the thing-in-itself. Synthetic (feelings) and analytic (logic) dichotomy rubs against the thought content and intuition concept divide.
The universal, necessary and the certain lead to anti-realism and for Kant he realizes it is our transcendental deduction that centralizes the faculty of knowledge as the nexus for space, time, and intuition. There’ll never be a Newton for a blade of grass, according to Kant, of course, Darwin disagrees.
The author connected dots that I could not get at by reading Kant’s complete works. Kant gives a movement from spiritualism to religious certainty then to non-certainty and it seems to me Kant was more of an atheist than the author seemed to believe. He’s the expert, I’m not.
I probably lean more toward making Kant my favorite of all philosophers. He is the first to no longer think that the truth is out there and relocated truth within us. Descartes assumes the world away by his cogito, Kant brings the world back and places us in it; Kant ridicules Anslem through realizing existence is not a predicate. The Copernican revolution of the mind was a good first step and Kant started that ball rolling. Hume and Leibnitz needed a synthesis and Kant provides it.
September 23, 2025
Arguably among the dozen most influential philosophers of the modern era, Kant’s thought is important in itself, and it is also an important background to understanding thinkers who followed him. He is also a very interesting individual in his own right, as this book makes very clear.
At the heart of Kant’s philosophical significance is the way that he remodelled Metaphysical reflection, trying to bridge the difference between empiricists (who focused on sensory experience) and rationalists (who focused on intellectual comprehension). Kant argued that sensory experiences are important, but so also is the intellectual framework which processes those experiences. This means that empiricism and rationalism both contribute to our knowledge of the world, thus giving rise to his famous distinction between things-in-themselves and things-as-we-can-know-them.
Equally important was Kants contribution to ethics, especially his Categorical Imperative. This book presents the issues particularly clearly, and it also draws examples from Kant’s life, illustrating where he followed the Categorical imperative himself (such as his absolute prohibition on lying) and where some of his dealings with others arguably fell short of universalising principles (such as going behind the back of a colleague to manoeuvre himself into a professorship). The author’s reflections on how he dealt with the tragic figure of Maria Von Herbert were particularly skilfully woven into the account of his life.
Grouping ideas thematically, rather than Chronologically, the author introduces us to a wide range of aspects of Kant’s life, and his thinking. We learn that Kant was relatively physically short (five feet two inches, or 1.57m) and that he was a popular contributor to the local social scene, where he was notably successful at activities such as gambling. We also learn about his house purchase and his domestic situation with servants and relatives. The author also draws some interesting contrasts. Kant insisted that he learned much from Rousseau, but whereas Rousseau dumped his five children in orphanages, to be rid of them, Kant, inconvenienced himself and stepped out of his career when his father died, so that he could support his siblings in their hour of need.
One of the commendable features of this book is that it introduces readers to Kant’s wider authorship. Rather than focusing upon just the classic texts which he is justly famous for, it also includes references to lesser known texts. This includes Kant’s spoof ‘Conjectural Beginning of Human History’ (1786) and his book on the ‘Wrongfulness of Unauthorised Publication of Books’ (1785). That last text was Kant’s attempt to argue against what we now know as copyright infringement.
With a relatively comprehensive set of reference to Kants contemporaries, and those who engaged with his thinking, the book situates Kant particularly well in the history of ideas. Perhaps there could have been a little more acknowledgement of philosophical influences on him which were pre-Leibniz, but by and large readers get a good sense of the thought world of the era and of how Kant fits into it.
One of the difficulties with writing about Kant today, is that he had views about race, gender and religion which are (now) controversial. It would be wrong to ignore such issues, but it would also be a mistake to allow the problems in those aspects of his thought to distract from his contributions in other areas. The author deals with all those issues in a very balanced and thoughtful way, so that readers are made properly aware of all the relevant issues.
Textually, around 17% of the book consists of glossaries, notes and a helpful chronology of Kant’s life.
Overall, this is a well-written and informative account of one of the architects of the modern thought world. It will be of relevance to anyone interested in history, philosophy or the history of ideas. It is accessible to readers from broadly any background, without requiring any specialist knowledge or previous study.
(These are honest opinions on a free ARC digital copy of the text, made available for the purpose of review).
At the heart of Kant’s philosophical significance is the way that he remodelled Metaphysical reflection, trying to bridge the difference between empiricists (who focused on sensory experience) and rationalists (who focused on intellectual comprehension). Kant argued that sensory experiences are important, but so also is the intellectual framework which processes those experiences. This means that empiricism and rationalism both contribute to our knowledge of the world, thus giving rise to his famous distinction between things-in-themselves and things-as-we-can-know-them.
Equally important was Kants contribution to ethics, especially his Categorical Imperative. This book presents the issues particularly clearly, and it also draws examples from Kant’s life, illustrating where he followed the Categorical imperative himself (such as his absolute prohibition on lying) and where some of his dealings with others arguably fell short of universalising principles (such as going behind the back of a colleague to manoeuvre himself into a professorship). The author’s reflections on how he dealt with the tragic figure of Maria Von Herbert were particularly skilfully woven into the account of his life.
Grouping ideas thematically, rather than Chronologically, the author introduces us to a wide range of aspects of Kant’s life, and his thinking. We learn that Kant was relatively physically short (five feet two inches, or 1.57m) and that he was a popular contributor to the local social scene, where he was notably successful at activities such as gambling. We also learn about his house purchase and his domestic situation with servants and relatives. The author also draws some interesting contrasts. Kant insisted that he learned much from Rousseau, but whereas Rousseau dumped his five children in orphanages, to be rid of them, Kant, inconvenienced himself and stepped out of his career when his father died, so that he could support his siblings in their hour of need.
One of the commendable features of this book is that it introduces readers to Kant’s wider authorship. Rather than focusing upon just the classic texts which he is justly famous for, it also includes references to lesser known texts. This includes Kant’s spoof ‘Conjectural Beginning of Human History’ (1786) and his book on the ‘Wrongfulness of Unauthorised Publication of Books’ (1785). That last text was Kant’s attempt to argue against what we now know as copyright infringement.
With a relatively comprehensive set of reference to Kants contemporaries, and those who engaged with his thinking, the book situates Kant particularly well in the history of ideas. Perhaps there could have been a little more acknowledgement of philosophical influences on him which were pre-Leibniz, but by and large readers get a good sense of the thought world of the era and of how Kant fits into it.
One of the difficulties with writing about Kant today, is that he had views about race, gender and religion which are (now) controversial. It would be wrong to ignore such issues, but it would also be a mistake to allow the problems in those aspects of his thought to distract from his contributions in other areas. The author deals with all those issues in a very balanced and thoughtful way, so that readers are made properly aware of all the relevant issues.
Textually, around 17% of the book consists of glossaries, notes and a helpful chronology of Kant’s life.
Overall, this is a well-written and informative account of one of the architects of the modern thought world. It will be of relevance to anyone interested in history, philosophy or the history of ideas. It is accessible to readers from broadly any background, without requiring any specialist knowledge or previous study.
(These are honest opinions on a free ARC digital copy of the text, made available for the purpose of review).
July 12, 2025
I approached Kant: A Revolution in Thinking by Marcus Willaschek with guarded curiosity, having read most of Kant’s major works in both English and parts of the original German. As someone who has long wrestled with the Critique of Pure Reason and Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals, I was hoping for either a new angle, a bold reframing, or at least a deeply nuanced exploration of Kant’s notoriously complex architecture of thought. What I found instead was a clean, almost sanitized distillation of Kant’s key contributions—capable, sure, but ultimately predictable for anyone already initiated into his moral and epistemological universe.
To be fair, Willaschek writes well. The prose is lucid, and the modular chapter structure makes the book digestible and even enjoyable in places. He skillfully weaves historical context and biography into the more arid patches of Kantian abstraction, painting a more human portrait of the man from Königsberg. There is a certain charm in seeing Kant’s schedule or neuroses side-by-side with his rational universalism. That blend of the mundane and the metaphysical is part of what makes Kant so fascinating—and Willaschek handles it deftly.
But beyond this surface-level accessibility, the book offered me very little. Its core premise—that Kant’s thought is a “revolution” in balancing empiricism and rationalism, freedom and necessity, individual rights and cosmopolitan duty—is one I’ve seen unpacked in richer, more philosophically daring ways in texts like Henry Allison’s or even in Onora O’Neill’s works. Willaschek’s treatment of the categorical imperative or the transcendental aesthetic felt like driving through familiar streets with the GPS turned on: there were no surprises, no detours, and certainly no new vistas.
Even when the book tackled Kant’s less-celebrated dimensions—his views on race, gender, or colonialism—it often did so in a manner that acknowledged the problem but didn’t linger with the ethical discomfort. The critical engagement was present but mild, and the format perhaps worked against depth: the stand-alone chapters sacrificed philosophical layering for thematic variety. For a novice, this would be ideal. For someone who has lived inside Kant’s thought-world, it felt like philosophical déjà vu.
What did linger, though, was the faint sense that Willaschek was trying to rehabilitate Kant as a “relevant” thinker, bending his ideas toward modern liberal ideals—universal dignity, perpetual peace, democratic pluralism. There’s value in that project, no doubt, but it sometimes risked flattening the more radical, unsettling tensions within Kant’s work: the agonizing demand for moral self-legislation in a world shaped by determinism; the abyss of noumenal unknowability that haunts the heart of his metaphysics; the disturbing rigor of duty unsoftened by emotion. Those aspects weren’t so much ignored as dulled.
Reading this book felt less like encountering Kant anew and more like auditing a course I had once taken seriously, now taught for general credit. Perhaps that’s the book’s true audience: readers curious about Kant but daunted by his prose, or undergrads in search of a digestible overview. In that sense, Kant: A Revolution in Thinking does exactly what it sets out to do: offer a smart, structured, and friendly introduction.
But for those of us who have already argued with Kant in our heads, stayed up late puzzling over synthetic a priori judgments, or felt the chilly thrill of the sublime in Critique of Judgment—this book is pleasant, but redundant. Like reading the CliffsNotes of a symphony you’ve already committed to heart.
In the end, I closed the book with respect for Willaschek’s clarity but no particular intellectual exhilaration.
The revolution he describes is real, but this rendering of it is too cautious, too curated, to spark it again in someone already deeply initiated.
It’s a map of Kantian terrain—but I’ve walked those hills, and this time, I missed the storm.
To be fair, Willaschek writes well. The prose is lucid, and the modular chapter structure makes the book digestible and even enjoyable in places. He skillfully weaves historical context and biography into the more arid patches of Kantian abstraction, painting a more human portrait of the man from Königsberg. There is a certain charm in seeing Kant’s schedule or neuroses side-by-side with his rational universalism. That blend of the mundane and the metaphysical is part of what makes Kant so fascinating—and Willaschek handles it deftly.
But beyond this surface-level accessibility, the book offered me very little. Its core premise—that Kant’s thought is a “revolution” in balancing empiricism and rationalism, freedom and necessity, individual rights and cosmopolitan duty—is one I’ve seen unpacked in richer, more philosophically daring ways in texts like Henry Allison’s or even in Onora O’Neill’s works. Willaschek’s treatment of the categorical imperative or the transcendental aesthetic felt like driving through familiar streets with the GPS turned on: there were no surprises, no detours, and certainly no new vistas.
Even when the book tackled Kant’s less-celebrated dimensions—his views on race, gender, or colonialism—it often did so in a manner that acknowledged the problem but didn’t linger with the ethical discomfort. The critical engagement was present but mild, and the format perhaps worked against depth: the stand-alone chapters sacrificed philosophical layering for thematic variety. For a novice, this would be ideal. For someone who has lived inside Kant’s thought-world, it felt like philosophical déjà vu.
What did linger, though, was the faint sense that Willaschek was trying to rehabilitate Kant as a “relevant” thinker, bending his ideas toward modern liberal ideals—universal dignity, perpetual peace, democratic pluralism. There’s value in that project, no doubt, but it sometimes risked flattening the more radical, unsettling tensions within Kant’s work: the agonizing demand for moral self-legislation in a world shaped by determinism; the abyss of noumenal unknowability that haunts the heart of his metaphysics; the disturbing rigor of duty unsoftened by emotion. Those aspects weren’t so much ignored as dulled.
Reading this book felt less like encountering Kant anew and more like auditing a course I had once taken seriously, now taught for general credit. Perhaps that’s the book’s true audience: readers curious about Kant but daunted by his prose, or undergrads in search of a digestible overview. In that sense, Kant: A Revolution in Thinking does exactly what it sets out to do: offer a smart, structured, and friendly introduction.
But for those of us who have already argued with Kant in our heads, stayed up late puzzling over synthetic a priori judgments, or felt the chilly thrill of the sublime in Critique of Judgment—this book is pleasant, but redundant. Like reading the CliffsNotes of a symphony you’ve already committed to heart.
In the end, I closed the book with respect for Willaschek’s clarity but no particular intellectual exhilaration.
The revolution he describes is real, but this rendering of it is too cautious, too curated, to spark it again in someone already deeply initiated.
It’s a map of Kantian terrain—but I’ve walked those hills, and this time, I missed the storm.
December 28, 2025
Kant by Marcus Willaschek is a thoughtful and accessible exploration of one of philosophy’s most profound and influential thinkers. Rather than presenting dense academic jargon, Willaschek offers readers a clear and engaging guide into the complex world of Immanuel Kant’s ideas. The book takes you on a journey through key concepts such as the nature of reason, morality, freedom, and human understanding, breaking down difficult philosophical territory with patience and clarity. It’s a compelling read for both students of philosophy and curious minds eager to grapple with big questions about how we know the world and how we ought to live in it.
What makes this book particularly effective is the author’s ability to connect Kant’s abstract theories to real-world concerns. Willaschek doesn’t just explain what Kant thought — he shows why Kant still matters today, linking ethical theory to contemporary debates about autonomy, dignity, and moral responsibility. The writing is structured logically and paced well, with each chapter building on the last in a way that feels intuitive rather than overwhelming. While readers new to philosophy may still find some sections challenging, the clear examples and steady explanations help make even difficult ideas more approachable.
Kant stands out as a bridge between complex philosophical thought and accessible interpretation. It’s not a light read, but for anyone interested in the foundations of modern thought, it offers deep insight without unnecessary obscurity.
What makes this book particularly effective is the author’s ability to connect Kant’s abstract theories to real-world concerns. Willaschek doesn’t just explain what Kant thought — he shows why Kant still matters today, linking ethical theory to contemporary debates about autonomy, dignity, and moral responsibility. The writing is structured logically and paced well, with each chapter building on the last in a way that feels intuitive rather than overwhelming. While readers new to philosophy may still find some sections challenging, the clear examples and steady explanations help make even difficult ideas more approachable.
Kant stands out as a bridge between complex philosophical thought and accessible interpretation. It’s not a light read, but for anyone interested in the foundations of modern thought, it offers deep insight without unnecessary obscurity.
December 2, 2025
Immanuel Kant is a notoriously difficult thinker to grasp, but the author does a yeoman's job of untangling it for the focused reader. Wlliaschek also covers Kant's life and numerous publications on a wide variety of subjects, unrelated to philosophy. This is an excellent book that helped me gain a better understanding of Kant's oeuvre.
December 16, 2025
Beautifully written, startlingly clear exposition of Kant's metaphysics -- including variant interpretations and still unresolved aspects of it -- as well as a revealing biography of the man. Highly recommended for anyone interested in Kant or philosophy in general.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews