ISBN: 9781770830622

The Critique of Practical Reason is the second of Immanuel Kant's three critiques, published in 1788. It follows on from Kant's Critique of Pure Reason and deals with his moral ph… More...

The Critique of Practical Reason is the second of Immanuel Kant's three critiques, published in 1788. It follows on from Kant's Critique of Pure Reason and deals with his moral philosophy.The second Critique exercised a decisive influence over the subsequent development of the field of ethics and moral philosophy, beginning with Johann Gottlieb Fichte's Doctrine of Science and becoming, during the 20th century, the principal reference point for deontological moral philosophy.Kant sketches out here what is to follow. Most of these two chapters focus on comparing the situation of theoretical and of practical reason and therefore discusses how the Critique of Practical Reason compares to the Critique of Pure Reason.The first Critique, "of Pure Reason", was a criticism of the pretensions of those who use pure theoretical reason, who claim to attain metaphysical truths beyond the ken of applied reasoning. The conclusion was that pure theoretical reason must be restrained, because it produces confused arguments when applied outside of its appropriate sphere. However, the Critique of Practical Reason is not a critique of pure practical reason, but rather a defense of it as being capable of grounding behavior superior to that grounded by desire-based practical reasoning. It is actually a critique, then, of the pretensions of applied practical reason. Pure practical reason must not be restrained, in fact, but cultivated.Kant informs us that while the first Critique suggested that God, freedom, and immortality are unknowable, the second Critique will mitigate this claim. Freedom is indeed knowable because it is revealed by God. God and immortality are also knowable, but practical reason now requires belief in these postulates of reason. Kant once again invites his dissatisfied critics to actually provide a proof of God's existence and shows that this is impossible because the various arguments (ontological, cosmological and teleological) for God's existence all depend essentially on the idea that existence is a predicate inherent to the concepts to which it is applied.Kant insists that the Critique can stand alone from the earlier Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals, although it addresses some criticisms leveled at that work. This work will proceed at a higher level of abstraction.While valid criticisms of the Groundwork are to be addressed, Kant dismisses many criticisms that he finds unhelpful. He suggests that many of the defects that reviewers have found in his arguments are in fact only in their brains, which are too lazy to grasp his ethical system as a whole. As to those who accuse him of writing incomprehensible jargon, he challenges them to find more suitable language for his ideas or to prove that they are really meaningless. He reassures the reader that the second Critique will be more accessible than the first. New Textbooks>Trade Paperback>Philosophy>Philosophy>Philosophy, Theophania Publishing Core >1 >T<

ISBN: 9781770830622

The late Dr. Heinrich (Heinz) W. Cassirer was the elder son of the famous German philosopher and polymath, Ernst Cassirer. The family took refuge in Britain following the Nazi accession t… More...

The late Dr. Heinrich (Heinz) W. Cassirer was the elder son of the famous German philosopher and polymath, Ernst Cassirer. The family took refuge in Britain following the Nazi accession to power in 1933, being Jewish and therefore in obvious, ultimate danger. Professor Cassirer came to Oxford, but not long afterwards he moved to Sweden and then to the U.S.A. His son, Heinz, remained in Britain, becoming a protege of the distinguished British Kantian scholar, Professor H. J. Paton, then professor of logic and metaphysics in the University of Glasgow. At Paton's suggestion, Heinz Cassirer wrote a commentary on Kant's third Critique, the Critique of Judgment, which Methuen published in the late thirties; he also assisted Professor Paton with the last stages of the preparation of the latter's commentary on the first half of Kant's Critique of Pure Reason, which he brought out in the autumn of 1936 under the title of Kant's Metaphysic of Experience. In 1937 Paton moved to Oxford as White's Professor of Moral Philosophy, and Cassirer followed him there to teach as a refugee scholar, concentrating on Kant's philosophy. In 1946 he secured a permanent appointment in the Department of Moral Philosophy at Glasgow under the late Professor W. G. Maclagan, remaining there until his retirement. In 1954 he published, in the Muirhead Library of Philosophy series, a study on Kant's Critique of Pure Reason under the title: Kant's First Critique. But he was already working on the relation of Kant's theory of knowledge to his ethics, and the first draft of the translation of the Critique of Practical Reason, which now appears posthumously, was completed in 1945. New Textbooks>Trade Paperback>Philosophy>Philosophy>Philosophy, Theophania Publishing Core >1 >T<

ISBN: 9781770830622

With this volume, Werner Pluhar completes his work on Kant's three Critiques, an accomplishment unique among English language translators of Kant. At once accurate, fluent, and accessible… More...

With this volume, Werner Pluhar completes his work on Kant's three Critiques, an accomplishment unique among English language translators of Kant. At once accurate, fluent, and accessible, Pluhar's rendition of the Critique of Practical Reason meets the standards set in his widely respected translations of the Critique of Judgment (1987) and the Critique of Pure Reason (1996).Stephen Engstrom's Introduction discusses the place of the second Critique in Kant's critical philosophy, its relation to Kant's ethics, and its practical purpose and provides an illuminating outline of Kant's argument. New Textbooks>Trade Paperback>Philosophy>Philosophy>Philosophy, Theophania Publishing Core >1 >T<

ISBN: 9781770830622

The Critique of Practical Reason Critique-of-Practical-Reason~~Immanuel-Kant Philosophy>Philosophy>Philosophy Paperback, Theophania Publishing