KANT'S PROLEGOMENA
TO ANY FUTURE METAPHYSICS
EDITED IN ENGLISH
BY
DR. PAUL CARUS
THIRD EDITION
CHICAGO
THE OPEN COURT PUBLISHING COMPANY
1912
TRANSLATION COPYRIGHTED
BY
The Open Court Publishing Co.
1902.
[Transcriber's note: ** Supplemental material and table of contents are omitted from this etext. **]
Contents
PREAMBLE ON THE PECULIARITIES OF ALL METAPHYSICAL COGNITION.
FIRST PART OF THE TRANSCENDENTAL PROBLEM.
HOW IS PURE MATHEMATICS POSSIBLE?
SECOND PART OF THE TRANSCENDENTAL PROBLEM.
HOW IS THE SCIENCE OF NATURE POSSIBLE?
THIRD PART OF THE MAIN TRANSCENDENTAL PROBLEM.
HOW IS METAPHYSICS IN GENERAL POSSIBLE?
SOLUTION OF THE GENERAL QUESTION OF THE PROLEGOMENA, "HOW IS METAPHYSICS POSSIBLE AS A SCIENCE?"
ON WHAT CAN BE DONE TO MAKE METAPHYSICS ACTUAL AS A SCIENCE.
KANT'S Prolegomena,1 althougha small book, is indubitably the most important of his writings. It furnishes us with a key to his main work, The Critique of Pure Reason; in fact, it is an extract containing all the salient ideas of Kant's system. It approaches the subject in the simplest and most direct way, and is therefore best adapted as an introduction into his philosophy. For this reason, The Open Court Publishing Company has deemed it advisable to bring out a new edition of the work, keeping in view its broader use as a preliminary survey and explanation of Kant's philosophy in general. In order to make the book useful for this broader purpose, the editor has not only stated his own views concerning the problem underlying the Prolegomena (see page 167 et seq.), but has also collected the most important materials which have reference to Kant's philosophy, or to the reception which was accorded to it in various quarters (see page 241 et seq.). The selections have not been made from a partisan standpoint, but have been chosen with a view to characterising the attitude of different minds, and to directing the student to the best literature on the subject.
It is not without good reasons that the appearance of the Critique of Pure Reason is regarded as the beginning of a new era in the history of philosophy; and so it seems that a comprehension of Kant's position, whether we accept or reject it, is indispensable to the student of philosophy. It is not his solution which makes the sage of König