Kant and the Reach of Reason
Studies in Kant's Theory of Rational Systematization

The essays in this volume are concerned with the overall nature of Kant's philosophical system.

Nicholas Rescher (Author)

9780521667913, Cambridge University Press

Paperback, published 13 October 1999

268 pages
22.9 x 15.4 x 1.6 cm, 0.38 kg

"Kant and the Reach of Reason, a collection of nine essays spanning three decades, shows that Rescher is a first-rate Kant scholar...Rescher's reading of the Critical philosophy is original, thought-provoking, and in many ways compelling." The Review of Metaphysics

The essays collected in this volume have a strong thematic and interpretative unity. Their underlying concern is with the overall nature of Kant's philosophical system, and thus with his deepest intentions and basic commitments. The book falls into three parts. The first three essays deal with Kant's approach to things in themselves and with the realm of noumenal causality. The second part considers Kant's approach to the methodology of rational inquiry, and, in particular, his views on cognitive systematization and the limits of philosophizing itself. The third section focuses on the role played by the categorical imperative in both the theoretical and practical philosophy. The aim throughout, one that many Kant scholars and students will find provocative, is to show that in an important sense Kant is prepared to assert the primacy of practical over theoretical philosophy.

Introduction
1. On the status of 'things in themselves' in Kant's critical philosophy
2. Kant on noumenal causality
3. Kant's cognitive anthropocentrism: the 'special constitution' of the human mind in Kantian epistemology
4. Kant on cognitive systematization
5. Kant's teleological theology
6. Kant on the limits and prospects of philosophy
7. On the reach of pure reason in Kant's practical philosophy
8. On the rationale of Kant's categorical imperative
9. On the unity of Kant's categorical imperative
Name index.

Subject Areas: Western philosophy: c 1600 to c 1900 [HPCD]