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Title: Critique of Pure Reason by Immanuel Kant, Paul Guyer, Allen W. Wood ISBN: 0-521-65729-6 Publisher: Cambridge Univ Pr (Trd) Pub. Date: February, 1999 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $28.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 3.88 (26 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: A Critique of Pure Idiocy
Comment: I'm simply bewildered by two of the reviews of Kant's Critique of Pure Reason. Giving the Critique two or three stars shows an absolute lack of understanding for its role in the history of modern philosophy. Every philosopher before Kant assumed that objects of the external world exist in themselves (i.e. that a chair is an object that can be studied in and of itself). Regardless of the philosopher, the belief in the independent existence of the external world went unquestioned from Plato onward.
In the Critique of Pure Reason, Kant argues that things don't exist separate from the conditions that make experiencing them possible. The Critique therefore takes a step back, and actually studies the conditions under which *any* experience is possible. This marks a transition in philosophy from a theocentric perspective to an anthropocentric perspective; a transition that carries through 19th and 20th century philosophy to the present day. Virtually all post-Kantian philosophers focus on studying human beings from an anthropocentric perspective, and avoid starting out with a God's eye view. Hegel, Nietzsche, Heidegger, Foucault, and countless other philosophers work within this anthropocentric perspective to greater and lesser degrees. It isn't important whether they agree with Kant on all the details, or even any of the details, but rather that the Copernican turn offers the framework for virtually all of subsequent philosophy. The two reviews to which I refer are the equivalent of giving Einstein two stars for his contribution to physics. What is significant is not that Einstein's vision was exactly correct, but rather, that his contribution is indispensible to all subsequent physics. The same argument clearly applies to the work of Immanuel Kant.
Rating: 5
Summary: KANT IS THE MAN
Comment: First of all, it is important to remember that this review refers to the Cambridge Edition of the Critique of Pure Reason, so it is unfair to go into any in-depth discussion regarding Kemp Smith's translation. The Cambridge Edition was translated by Paul Guyer and Allen W. Wood, two Kantian scholars that translate the material from a grammatical rather than literal perspective. This fact alone means that the buyer of this edition must work harder to reach the meaning of Kant's ideas. I have read Kemp Smith's translation, it is much easier to read than this Cambridge Edition, but my favorite translation is by F. Max Muiller. Considering all this, I recommend the Cambridge Edition only to hard core Kant scholars, but for the first time reader of Kant try the Kemp Smith or F. Max Muller translations for an easier read. All this aside, Kant's ideas regarding human experience and understanding are quite unique and must be taken with a grain of salt. Any true student of philosophy should attempt the reading and understanding of THE CRITIQUE OF PURE REASON but should not consider it the say-all and end-all of metaphysics. It is important to remember what Kant states in his much shorter and much more accesable book, PROLEGOMENA TO ANY FUTURE METAPHYSICS, metaphysics is not an exact science like mathematics, rather metaphysics is more or less an art of reasoning regarding the nature of reality. Thus each individual, by the nature of their unique perspective of reality, will approach metaphysics from a different angle and get their own meaning from the abstract concepts that make-up this very interesting branch of philosophy. Because of this I recommend the truelly interested student of philosophy to also read Hume, Husserl and Locke. The crux of this book is the Coperincan shifting of reality from the outside world, as an absolute phenomenon to be experienced, to the inside world, as a mental feature that influences experince. Thus, reality becomes, when treated by Kant, not an object of experience, but rather a factor of experience. This shift of reality is the foundation of all of modern psychology and allows the person that truelly comprehends this concept to treat reality as a personal feature of life rather than as a absolute feature of the physical world. With this shift of reality from the outside world to the inside world comes an increased resposibilty regarding one's actions, and this is the bottom line of Kant's whole life's work and achivement. The reader of this monumental book must not get hung up on the transcedetalism of the ideas, but like Kant, must use these ideas regarding the nature of reality as a stepping stone to their own morality and ethics. After all, Kant was not a dirty hippie but was a great scholar and moralist.
Rating: 5
Summary: Complex thoughts for comprehensive minds...
Comment: in response to the reviewer who stated that Kant is an "affront to everything good about philosophy" and that his works are less than worthy because of the majority's overwhelming lack of an ability to comprehend him, well who says everything has to be written in layman's terms in order to be valuable? it's unfortunate, yes, that many, such as yourself, will never experience that moment of sheer awe as it all dawns on you; that moment when every aspect of each sentance (granted that a single sentance may indeed be 4 pages long) suddenly come together in your mind at which point the whole concept which Kant is trying to impart hits you like a skillet to the head. for those of us who do have the patience and the intellect to reach beyond the idiosynchracies and nuances of his writings enough to understand them, whether in agreement with him or not, there simply is nothing else out there that can provide that level of depth to one's grasp on any concepts regarding the structure of thought and being. you want to turn mature material into something that's 'fun for the whole family' and i'm sorry but some things should be left to the adult-only crowd. if for nothing else then simply so they may remain intact and as intended. you can not simplify what Kant and others like him divulge. by trying to do so you remove what it is that makes them worth considering in the first place.
great that Plato's philosophies are easy for anyone to understand, i'm happy for you that he is... but that just means he's got a lot more people quoting him here and there and frankly, that's where words are too oft spoken but their meanings lost. quotes become clichès and no one ever bothers to philosphize the point being made and the meaning behind a clichè.
and say that it were easy to read for all... say that his works were stripped of their complexity and bastardized to all levels of literacy for the limited mind - what, then, would you have us read? what would you have the "elite few" who do have the capacity to understand his original works read in order to find the same challenge to our psyche and our mental make-up that we get from reading works such as these.? so it may be for the elite few but don't those elite few deserve material written at their own level of thinking to read? if your own logistics are not up to par with those of men like Kant then it is no fault of his and no reason for you to knock him.
leave the criticism of such great minds to those who have the capacity to conceive them and keep your reviews to that which you know rather than that which you have absolutely no idea.
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Title: Critique of Practical Reason (Great Books in Philosophy) by Immanuel Kant, T. K. Abbott ISBN: 1573920630 Publisher: Prometheus Books Pub. Date: June, 1996 List Price(USD): $10.00 |
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Title: A Treatise of Human Nature: Being an Attempt to Introduce the Experimental Method of Reasoning into Moral Subjects (Oxford Philosophical Texts) by David Hume, David Fate Norton, Mary J. Norton ISBN: 0198751729 Publisher: Oxford Press Pub. Date: March, 2000 List Price(USD): $14.95 |
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Title: Critique of the Power of Judgment by Immanuel Kant, Paul Guyer, Eric Matthews ISBN: 0521348927 Publisher: Cambridge University Press Pub. Date: 03 December, 2001 List Price(USD): $26.00 |
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Title: Practical Philosophy by Immanuel Kant, Mary J. Gregor, Allen W. Wood ISBN: 0521654084 Publisher: Cambridge Univ Pr (Trd) Pub. Date: 01 February, 1999 List Price(USD): $35.00 |
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Title: An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding (Oxford Philosophical Texts) by David Hume, Tom L. Beauchamp ISBN: 0198752482 Publisher: Oxford Press Pub. Date: May, 1999 List Price(USD): $12.95 |
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