Die drei Kritiken: Kritik der reinen Vernunft/Kritik der praktischen Vernunft/Kritik der Urteilskraft

by Immanuel Kant

Kants 'Kritiken' gehören zu den weltweit meistbeachteten Werken der Philosophie. In der 'Kritik der reinen Vernunft' (1781/87) widmet sich der Königsberger Denker der philosophischen Schlüsselfrage 'Was kann ich wissen?' Die 'Kritik der praktischen Vernunft' (1788) behandelt die allgemeinen Grundlagen der Ethik und die verbindlichen Voraussetzungen sittlichen Handelns. In der 'Kritik der Urteilskraft' (1790) vereint Immanuel Kant seine Ästhetik mit einer Theorie der organischen Natur und vollendet seine kritische Philosophie.

Genres: Philosophy, German Literature, Nonfiction, Classics

1313 pages, Kindle Edition

First published August 15, 1993

About the author

Immanuel Kant was an 18th-century philosopher from Königsberg, Prussia (now Kaliningrad, Russia). He's regarded as one of the most influential thinkers of modern Europe & of the late Enlightenment. His most important work is The Critique of Pure Reason, an investigation of reason itself. It encompasses an attack on traditional metaphysics & epistemology, & highlights his own contribution to these areas. Other main works of his maturity are The Critique of Practical Reason, which is about ethics, & The Critique of Judgment, about esthetics & teleology.

Pursuing metaphysics involves asking questions about the ultimate nature of reality. Kant suggested that metaphysics can be reformed thru epistemology. He suggested that by understanding the sources & limits of human knowledge we can ask fruitful metaphysical questions. He asked if an object can be known to have certain properties prior to the experience of that object. He concluded that all objects that the mind can think about must conform to its manner of thought. Therefore if the mind can think only in terms of causality–which he concluded that it does–then we can know prior to experiencing them that all objects we experience must either be a cause or an effect. However, it follows from this that it's possible that there are objects of such a nature that the mind cannot think of them, & so the principle of causality, for instance, cannot be applied outside experience: hence we cannot know, for example, whether the world always existed or if it had a cause. So the grand questions of speculative metaphysics are off limits, but the sciences are firmly grounded in laws of the mind. Kant believed himself to be creating a compromise between the empiricists & the rationalists. The empiricists believed that knowledge is acquired thru experience alone, but the rationalists maintained that such knowledge is open to Cartesian doubt and that reason alone provides us with knowledge. Kant argues, however, that using reason without applying it to experience will only lead to illusions, while experience will be purely subjective without first being subsumed under pure reason. Kant’s thought was very influential in Germany during his lifetime, moving philosophy beyond the debate between the rationalists & empiricists. The philosophers Fichte, Schelling, Hegel and Schopenhauer saw themselves as correcting and expanding Kant's system, thus bringing about various forms of German Idealism. Kant continues to be a major influence on philosophy to this day, influencing both Analytic and Continental philosophy.

Reviews

[Dave Fedorchak · Rating 1 out of 5]

I pretty much hate this book. I'm probably too stupid to understand it so I'm guessing it's just not my thing but nearly every sentence seems pretentious and unnecessarily complicated. It's over 600 pages and I didn't get very far. I think Lincoln is credited with once saying about a political opponent of his- "this man can fit the smallest ideas into the largest number of words". I'll say the same thing about Kant

[T.R. Preston · Rating 3 out of 5]

I've always had issues with Kant's ethics. I find they have no real world applicability and are quite ridiculous. But now I have another reason to be aggravated by him: the fact that he might be the most pretentious writer who ever drew breath. He spends 50 pages at a time illustrating one point that could be summarized in at most 10. He says absolutely nothing using thousands of words. It's absurd.

There are some aspects I admire about Kant. He was a very deep thinker who dedicated his life to the pursuit of universal truths. I feel he missed the mark on almost everything, but I still admire the passionate pursuit and work ethic he displayed during his life. There are some interesting ideas in here, but his style of delivery is abysmal. This book was 640 pages of complex sophistry.

[Priscilla · Rating 5 out of 5]

Crítica da Razão Pura, a obra que compõe esse volume de Os Pensadores, é um texto de conceitos tão abstratos que podem forçar uma segunda leitura ou, no mínimo, uma procura das notas e comentários.

Talvez seja melhor dizer que ele não foi escrito para leigos. De fato, o autor parte do princípio que alguns conceitos já são de conhecimento do leitor de modo que ele pode se concentrar na definição e problematização do tema: O Conhecimento.

Ao distinguir conhecimento empírico do que ele chama "puro" (algo como noção universal), Kant força uma argumentação sobre o verdadeiro conhecimento como algo advindo do entendimento.

Há então uma fundamentação da proposta levando aos conceitos de juízos sintéticos e analíticos, a forma como ambos influenciam diferentes áreas da ciência, e o que todo filósofo tem um especial prazer em fazer: criticar os sofismas.

A última parte traz o Transcendentalismo (Estético, Analítico, Dialético) onde há uma sistematização da ideia e análise de erros de raciocínio.

Enfim, é uma boa, mas exigente leitura.

Há uma pequena biografia (que teve Marilena Chauí como consultora), a bibliografia básica e as necessárias notas de tradução. A minha edição já tem mais de vinte anos e continua com um ótimo aspecto. Material de qualidade.

[Nathan David · Rating 2 out of 5]

Once the concepts of the beautiful and the sublime are grasped, there is not much point in reading on. I am not sure if I am being stupid but this reads as about four hundred pages of unnecessary over explanation. One’s viewpoint is subjective usually in relation conceptually to how objects interact with said person (either good or agreeable to the person), the beautiful must be objective due to its universal quality and cannot serve a purpose individually. The sublime is the absolutely large, that which cannot be grasped conceptually through reason such as mathematically infinity or in nature something like the terror of a storm. This could have been written in a pamphlet.

[Sven Groot · Rating 2 out of 5]

Kant is obviously a very tough read but my issue is - like everyone's - that the man writes overly complicated explanations that drag on for way too long even when the subject matter is relatively simple. It's super pretentious and I often think his points of view make no sense either.
The first two critiques at least contain fundamental philosophical positions; the third kritik is 400 pages but barely has any substance. Would not recommend, you can learn waaaaay more Kant from secondary sources.

[Albert-Jan Jorna · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great because if I'd only read the Critique of Pure Reason I would have missed half of the story. Don't remember all the details so should read again but got the gist of what Kant was saying, which should be the point of all these books. Definitely on my re-read list because it was just awesome and very clear writing. Kant is a genius, that's for sure after reading this book and getting in touch with his (clear) thinking

[Jim · Rating 4 out of 5]

Since I've studied Theology, I thought Kant's Critique of Teleological Judgement would be easier for me to understand. It was, but only to a small degree. Still, he seems to argue for the necessity of God as both Author of the universe and Author of morality, as a condition for understanding a final purpose.

[Miguel Yuste Martin · Rating 5 out of 5]

It woke me up from the dogmatic dream and simultaneously from the relativistic one