Basic Writings of Kant

by Kant, Immanuel; Wood, Allen W.; Muller, F. Max; Abbott, Thomas K.

• ISBN13: 9780375757334
• ISBN10: 0375757333
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2001-07-10
• Publisher: Modern Library

Summary

With an Introduction by renowned Kant scholar Allen W. Wood, this is the only available one-volume edition of the essential works of the Enlightenment's greatest philosopher and one of the most influential thinkers of modern times. Containing carefully selected excerpts from his most frequently taught essays and book-length publications, includingCritique of Pure Reason, Critique of Judgment,andEternal Peace, theBasic Writings of Kantis an indispensable collection. This revised edition was edited by Carl J. Friedrich.

Author Biography

Allen W. Wood is professor of philosophy at Stanford University. His areas of specialization include German philosophy in the eighteenth and ninteenth centuries, and moral and political philosophy. He is the author of <b>Kant's Rational Theology, Hegel's Ethical Thought</b>, and <b>Kant's Ethical Thought</b>.

Table of Contents

Introduction	vii
Allen W. Wood
Guide to the Marginal Notations	xxvii
Selections from Critique of Pure Reason [1781, 1787]	1	(116)
F. Max Muller
Idea for a Universal History with Cosmopolitan Intent [1784]	117	(16)
Carl J. Friedrich
Answer to the Question: What Is Enlightenment? [1784]	133	(10)
Thomas K. Abbott
Fundamental Principles of the Metaphysics of Morals [1785]	143	(80)
Thomas K. Abbott
Selections from Critique of Practical Reason [1788]	223	(50)
Thomas K. Abbott
Selections from Critique of Judgment [1793]	273	(94)
James C. Meredith
Selections from Religion Within the Limits of Reason Alone [1793-1794]	367	(48)
Hoyt W. Hudson
Theodore Greene
Selections from Concerning the Common Saying: This May Be True in Theory But Does Not Apply to Practice [1793]	415	(18)
Carl J. Friedrich
To Eternal Peace [1795]	433	(44)
Carl J. Friedrich
Suggestions for Further Reading	477

Excerpts

The Transcendental Doctrine of Elements

First Part.
Transcendental Aesthetic.

Whatever the process and the means may be by which knowledge reaches its objects, there is one that reaches them directly, and forms the ultimate material of all thought, viz. intuition (Anschauung). This is possible only when the object is given, and the object can be given only (to human beings at least) through a certain affection of the mind (Gemüth).

This faculty (receptivity) of receiving representations (Vorstellungen), according to the manner in which we are affected by objects, is called sensibility (Sinnlichkeit).

Objects therefore are given to us through our sensibility. Sensibility alone supplies us with intuitions (Anschauungen). These intuitions become thought through the understanding (Verstand), and hence arise conceptions (Begriffe). All thought therefore must, directly or indirectly, go back to intuitions (Anschauungen), i.e. to our sensibility, because in no other way can objects be given to us.

The effect produced by an object upon the faculty of representation (Vorstellungsfähigkeit), so far as we are affected by it, is called sensation (Empfindung). An intuition (Anschauung) of an object, by means of sensation, is called empirical. The undefined object of such an empirical intuition is called phenomenon (Erscheinung).

In a phenomenon I call that which corresponds to the sensation its matter; but that which causes the manifold matter of the phenomenon to be perceived as arranged in a certain order, I call its form.

Now it is clear that it cannot be sensation again through which sensations are arranged and placed in certain forms. The matter only of all phenomena is given us a posteriori; but their form must be ready for them in the mind (Gemüth) a priori, and must therefore be capable of being considered as separate from all sensations.

I call all representations in which there is nothing that belongs to sensation, pure (in a transcendental sense). The pure form therefore of all sensuous intuitions, that form in which the manifold elements of the phenomena are seen in a certain order, must be found in the mind a priori. And this pure form of sensibility may be called the pure intuition (Anschauung).

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Excerpted from Basic Writings of Kant by Immanuel Kant
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