Immanuel Kant - Critique of Pure Reason

This entirely new translation of the Critique of Pure Reason is the most accurate and informative English translation ever produced of this epochal philosophical text. Though its simple and direct style will make it suitable for all new readers of Kant, the translation displays an unprecedented philosophical and textual sophistication that will enlighten Kant scholars as well.

Through the comparison of the best modern German editions to the original 1781 and 1787 versions of the text, and careful attention to the precise translation of Kants terminology, as well as the faithful rendering of the structure and syntax of Kants prose, this translation recreates as far as possible a text with the same interpretative nuances and richness as the original. Moreover, by including the complete text of the handwritten emendations and marginal notes made by Kant in his own personal copy of the first edition, this volume does what even no German edition has ever done: famish the reader with a text as close as possible to the one present in Kants own library.

The Cambridge Edition places the reader in the most independent yet best informed interpretative position by presenting entirely separate (though meticulously cross-referenced) versions of all the portions of the work that Kant revised heavily for the second edition: the prefaces, the introduction, Transcendental Aesthetic, Transcendental Deduction, the chapter on Phenomena and Noumena, and the Paralogisms of Pure Reason.

The extensive editorial apparatus includes informative annotation, detailed glossaries, a thorough but perspicuous index, and a large-scale general introduction in which two of the worlds preeminent Kant scholars provide a succinct summary of the structure and argument of the Critique as well as a detailed account of its long and complex genesis.

THE CAMBRIDGE EDITION OF THE WORKS OF IMMANUEL KANT

Theoretical Philosophy, 17551770
Critique of Pure Reason
Theoretical Philosophy After 1781
Practical Philosophy
Critique of the Power of Judgment
Religion and Rational Theology
Anthropology, History, and Education
Natural Science
Lectures on Logic
Lectures on Metaphysics
Lectures on Ethics
Lectures on Anthropology
Lectures and Drafts on Political Philosophy
Opus postumum
Notes and Fragments
Correspondence

IMMANUEL KANT

Critique of Pure Reason

THE CAMBRIDGE EDITION OF THE WORKS OF IMMANUEL KANT

IMMANUEL KANT

TRANSLATED AND EDITED BY

PAUL GUYER

University of Pennsylvania

ALLEN W. WOOD

Stanford University

CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS
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Cambridge University Press 1998

This publication is in copyright. Subject to statutory exception and to the provisions of relevant collective licensing agreements, no reproduction of any part may take place without the written permission of Cambridge University Press.

First published 1998
Reprinted 1998
First paperback edition 1999
15th printing 2009

Printed in the United States of America

A catalog record for this publication is available from the British Library.

Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data

Kant, Immanuel, 17241804.
[Kritik der reinen Vemunft. English]
The critique of pure reason / edited [and translated] by Paul
Guyer, Allen W Wood.
p. cm. (The Cambridge edition of the works of Immanuel Kant)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-521-35402-1 (hardcover)
1. Knowledge, Theory of. 2. Causation. 3. Reason. I. Guyer,
Paul, 1948 II. Wood, Allen W. III. Title. IV. Series: Kant,
Immanuel, 17241804. Works. English, 1992.
B2778.E5G89 1998
121 dc21 97-4959

ISBN 978-0-521-35402-8 hardback
ISBN 978-0-521-65729-7 paperback

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Within a few years of the publication of his Critique of Pure Reason in 1781, Immanuel Kant (1724-1804) was recognized by his contemporaries as one of the seminal philosophers of modern times indeed as one of the great philosophers of all time. This renown soon spread beyond German-speaking lands, and translations of Kants work into English were published even before 1800. Since then, interpretations of Kants views have come and gone and loyalty to his positions has waxed and waned, but his importance has not diminished. Generations of scholars have devoted their efforts to producing reliable translations of Kant into English as well as into other languages.

There are four main reasons for the present edition of Kants writings:

1. Completeness. Although most of the works published in Kants lifetime have been translated before, the most important ones more than once, only fragments of Kants many important unpublished works have ever been translated. These include the Opuspostumum, Kants unfinished magnum opus on the transition from philosophy to physics; transcriptions of his classroom lectures; his correspondence; and his marginalia and other notes. One aim of this edition is to make a comprehensive sampling of these materials available in English for the first time.

2. Availability. Many English translations of Kants works, especially those that have not individually played a large role in the subsequent development of philosophy, have long been inaccessible or out of print. Many of them, however, are crucial for the understanding of Kants philosophical development, and the absence of some from English-language bibliographies may be responsible for erroneous or blinkered traditional interpretations of his doctrines by English-speaking philosophers.

3. Organization. Another aim of the present edition is to make all Kants published work, both major and minor, available in comprehensive volumes organized both chronologically and topically, so as to facilitate the serious study of his philosophy by English-speaking readers.

4. Consistency of translation. Although many of Kants major works have been translated by the most distinguished scholars of their day, some of these translations are now dated, and there is considerable terminological disparity among them. Our aim has been to enlist some of the most accomplished Kant scholars and translators to produce new translations, freeing readers from both the philosophical and literary preconceptions of previous generations and allowing them to approach texts, as far as possible, with the same directness as present-day readers of the German or Latin originals.