Immanuel Kant's Critique of Pure Reason: Core Ideas & Impact

Kant's Critique of Pure Reason: Structure and Impact

This text discusses the second edition of Immanuel Kant's Critique of Pure Reason, published in 1787. The first edition appeared in 1781, but a misunderstanding by critics prompted him to write in 1783 a summary of the work from another point of view, titled Prolegomena to Any Future Metaphysics That Will Be Able to Come Forward as Science. The second edition of the Critique represents the author's final thoughts on the subject.

Structure of the Critique of Pure Reason

Its structure includes an introduction and two main parts:

1. The Transcendental Doctrine of Elements
2. The Transcendental Doctrine of Method

The Transcendental Doctrine of Elements

Within the Transcendental Doctrine of Elements, two further parts are distinguished:

• Transcendental Aesthetic

  This section examines sensibility and the constitution of sensible knowledge. It explores the pure intuitions of sensibility—space and time—and the possibility of synthetic a priori judgments in geometry and arithmetic, thereby affirming the scientific status of mathematics.

• Transcendental Logic

  This part addresses intellectual knowledge. Here, we distinguish:

  • Transcendental Analytic

    Studies the understanding and the existence of synthetic a priori judgments in physics.

  • Transcendental Dialectic

    Investigates reason and its three sets of pure ideas or concepts: soul, world, and God. It concludes that metaphysics is impossible as a science.

The Transcendental Doctrine of Method

The Transcendental Doctrine of Method is divided into four chapters:

1. Discipline of Pure Reason
2. Canon of Pure Reason
3. Architectonic of Pure Reason
4. History of Pure Reason

Kant's Philosophical Project and Biography

Kant argues that human reason is affected by questions that cannot be rejected but to which it cannot adequately respond. Reason must subject itself to a critique, which acts as its own judge, with the aim of ascertaining whether metaphysics is possible as a science and what its sources, extension, and limits are. The Critique of Pure Reason is a work that presents methodological conditions that make synthetic a priori judgments possible and critiques rational metaphysics, labeling it dogmatic.

Kant, along with Laplace, was a theoretician of the astronomical theory of the origin of the universe and the formation of nebulae. An Enlightenment philosopher, he was born and died in Königsberg, ancient Prussia (1724–1804). His life revolved around study and teaching; he instilled in his alumni the importance of philosophizing and critical thinking. In 1770, he took the chair of logic and metaphysics at the University of Königsberg, where his studies were influenced by Martin Knutzen, a disciple of Wolff, who encouraged him to read Newton—one of his most important influences. He was an enthusiast of Frederick the Great of Prussia, Voltaire, Rousseau, the independence of the USA, and the French Revolution. The openness of Kant's spirit contrasted with his sedentary lifestyle, as he only left Königsberg for nine years as a preceptor.