Description
Book SynopsisThis accessible study grounds Kants philosophical position in the context of his intellectual influences, most notably against the background of the scepticism and empiricism of David Hume. It is an ideal introduction to Kants views in the key areas of knowledge and metaphysics; morality and freedom; and beauty and design.
Trade Review"In this excellent introduction to all three of Kant's Critques', Andrew Ward's aim is to put idealism back in its rightful place in our understanding of Kant. His writing is forceful, engaging and admirably clear, and his exegesis is, in my view, fundamentally correct."
-- Professor Adrian Moore, St Hugh's College, Oxford
Table of ContentsPreface
Abbreviations and Conventions
Acknowledgments
Part I: Critique of Pure Reason
Section I: A general introduction to Kant’s Copernican revolution in Philosophy, and its relation to scientific knowledge and transcendent metaphysics
Section II: The division of judgments, and the status of mathematics and natural science
Section III: The Transcendental Aesthetic: the nature of space and time
Section IV: The Transcendental Analytic: how our experience – our knowledge of objects in space and time – is made possible
Section V: The Transcendental Dialectic: why no theoretical knowledge in transcendent metaphysics is possible
Part II: Critique of Practical Reason
Section I: The Analytic of Pure Practical Reason: reason not sentiment as the foundation of morality, and how freedom of the will is proved Section II: The Dialectic of Pure Practical Reason: how morality establishes the existence of God and the immortality of the soul
Section III: The importance of Kant’s Copernican revolution to his moral philosophy
Part III: Critique of Judgment
Section I: The Analytic of Aesthetic Judgment: defending a third way between an empiricist and a traditional rationalist theory of taste
Section II: The Dialectic of Aesthetic Judgment: why the judgment of taste and our attitude to natural beauty require a Copernican revolution in aesthetics
Section III: A Kantian or Human theory of taste?
Section IV: Teleology and the Principle of the Finality of Nature
Bibliography
Index
