Critique of Pure Reason

kant, with this book, did to me what hume did to him— woke him from his dogmatic slumber

Publisher: Classy Publishing Translation by: JMD Meiklejohn (6/10) Paper: 10/10 Print: 10/10 Cover photo: 8/10 Pages: 370 I'm totally surprised. To be honest, this is far better than Penguin's Critique of Pure Reason (CPR) as far as paper and print goes. Buy without hesitation! No comment on Kant, though. But let me say something about this translator in the words of our contemporary philosopher Prof. A. C. Grayling (from his popular 2019 best seller 'The History of Philosophy'), "... Kant’s first translator into English was a Scottish teenager called John Meikeljohn, a prodigy at languages but nowhere near equipped to render the Critique into something intelligible. His practically unintelligible version was published in 1855. When at last a good translation was effected by Norman Kemp-Smith in 1929 – for a long time afterwards it was the standard English text – it was (relatively speaking) so clear that German students used it rather than reading the original." That should be enough. Though, I would encourage you to buy Meiklejohn version of the CPR because, frankly, I've not found it unintelligible as such, for almost every Western philosophy classic is as intelligible. I would also strongly encourage you to buy the Norman Kemp-Smith version. Believe me, studying these two, as if you were doing a comparative study of the two, would render your reading speed far higher than the case where you had to read mere Penguin's edition. It's always an efficient technique to keep two different translations side by side of the same philosophy classic while endeavouring to finish the classic. Good luck.

Considering the price, page, paper are excellent. Cover should have been a bit thick.

Delivered as promised

First of all, it's not an easy book to read. It's very long and almost unreadable due to its dry prose and complex terminology. That's something you should always expect when you're reading a high-end philosophy book. Anyway, there are a few terms you need to understand before I come to the core ideas of this book. 1. Synthetic a posteriori knowledge, that is, the knowledge we gain from our experiences. 2. Analytic a priori knowledge, that is, the universal knowledge which is independent of experience, such as our knowledge of mathematics. These two ideas are found in the earlier empiricist philosophers such as John Locke and David Hume as well as in rationalist philosophers such as G.Wilhelm. In the "Critique of Pure Reasons" Kant argues that "Synthetic A priori" Judgement is also possible. And for this, Kant gave the Newtonian example of (7 + 5 = 12). Here, no amount of analysis will find 12 in either 7 or 5. Thus Kant concludes that all pure mathematics is synthetic through a priori, the number 7 is seven and the number 5 is five, and the number 12 is twelve, In other words, they are universal and necessary. The entire Kant's philosophy can be understood within the three transcendental critiques, or approaches. 1. Transcendental Aesthetics (Sensibility) 2. Transcendental Analytic (Understanding) 3. Transcendental Dialectic (Reason) Human thinking faculty is divided into two aspects on which we understand things around us. Understanding, that is, Transcendental Aesthetics and Reason, that is, Transcendental Dialectic ( Note: Kant keeps Reason at a slightly higher domain. Reasons tell us about the limitations of our Understandings. And the Transcendental Dialectic that is according to Kant will free us from the Transcendental illusion or the Metaphysical illusions He also gave the concept of Noumena and phenomena world. Noumena: Reality as we see it, experience it, and which are given to us in one experience which is known as phenomena world. And then there is noumena world which can be understood as things in themselves. Its existence is never doubted. Just because we do not experience it, we can not know about it. It's preconditioning and without that, we can not know anything with certainty about matters of facts. God, Freedom, Immortality, these are transcendental concepts, that is, a metaphysical concept, But philosottendstities. The most fundamental concepts which later Kant would call them " Idea of Pure Reason" Soul ( unitary and substantial) Cosmos (infinite world process as a unity) God (the totality of existence ) For more book reviews you can follow me on Instagram at @ravishratnesh

Just marvelous. Never go for this if you haven't had any basic philosophical knowledge. Kant uses the type of jargon which is so unorthodox which made me to do a bunch of glossary before getting to start his work. The way he interpreted the noumenon and phenomenon world were just awesome. Though transcendental idealism comes with some flaws. But I'm not a guy who believes in noumenon world. The way he interpreted how we see receive the external world through spacial temporal, I was blown away. This book will be go to for academic students. Overall a time consuming, but worth it. One needs a lot of patience and passion to get on sticking with each and every page. Happy reading.👍

I don't know whether Penguin Books have started to print books with lower quality paper or simply it is a pirated version, but the quality is really poor. It's as much thin that I fear to turn pages. The pages also do not have the yellowish charm which often other books persist(even with Penguin). They are like greyish white. It might be a result of using recycled paper but if you ask me about that great feeling when you hold a book in hand to go through.... Ughhh... It doesn't give you that feel. Also, previously the same thing happened with "Invisible Man", so I retured it. But I guess, they have started to print books as it simply is so I'm going to keep this one for now.

With this work, Kant proudly asserted that he had accomplished a Copernican revolution in philosophy. Just as the founder of modern astronomy, Nicolaus Copernicus, had explained the apparent movements of the stars by ascribing them partly to the movement of the observers, so Kant had accounted for the application of the mind’s a priori principles to objects by demonstrating that the objects conform to the mind: in knowing, it is not the mind that conforms to things but instead things that conform to the mind. So act that the maxim of your will could always hold at the same time as a principle in a giving of universal law.