Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Acknowledgments
- Note on References and Translations
- Introduction
- PART ONE KANT'S DISCOVERY OF METAPHYSICAL ILLUSION
- PART TWO FALLACIES AND ILLUSIONS IN THE CRITIQUE OF PURE REASON
- PART THREE THE DIALECTICAL INFERENCES OF PURE REASON
- PART FOUR ILLUSION AND SYSTEMATICITY
- Conclusion
- Selected Bibligraphy
- Index
Introduction
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 30 September 2009
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Acknowledgments
- Note on References and Translations
- Introduction
- PART ONE KANT'S DISCOVERY OF METAPHYSICAL ILLUSION
- PART TWO FALLACIES AND ILLUSIONS IN THE CRITIQUE OF PURE REASON
- PART THREE THE DIALECTICAL INFERENCES OF PURE REASON
- PART FOUR ILLUSION AND SYSTEMATICITY
- Conclusion
- Selected Bibligraphy
- Index
Summary
There exists, then, a natural and unavoidable dialectic of pure reason – not one in which a bungler might entangle himself through lack of knowledge, or one which some sophist has artificially invented to confuse thinking people, but one inseparable from human reason, and which, even after its deceptiveness [Blendwerk] has been exposed, will not cease to play tricks with reason and continually entrap it into momentary aberrations ever and again calling for correction.
(A298/B355)The foregoing passage highlights the ostensible purpose of the Transcendental Dialectic in Kant's Critique of Pure Reason – to expose the illusion that presumably generates traditional attempts in metaphysics. Kant, of course, is well known as the philosopher who undermined the disciplines of traditional, rationalist, metaphysics. Despite the undeniable influence of his arguments on subsequent philosophical traditions, however, and despite the wealth of secondary literature devoted to these arguments, there remain serious difficulties in interpreting his claims. Part of the problem is that Kant's rejection of the metaphysical arguments is linked up with a unique theory of error. Kant refers to this unique kind of error as “transcendental illusion,” and he clearly thinks that it provides an important insight in the propensities of the human mind to engage in speculative metaphysics.
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- Information
- Kant's Doctrine of Transcendental Illusion , pp. 1 - 14Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2001