Critique of Pure Reason

Interesting Facts

• The book is divided into two main parts: the «Transcendental Aesthetic» and the «Transcendental Logic», where Kant explores the nature of human knowledge.
• Kant introduces the concept of the «thing-in-itself» (Ding an sich), asserting that we cannot know objects as they exist in themselves, but only through our sensory perceptions.
• One of the key concepts of the book is «a priori knowledge»—knowledge that is independent of experience but is a necessary condition for any experience.
• Kant divides judgments into analytic and synthetic, asserting that there are synthetic a priori judgments that expand our knowledge without relying on experience.
• The book introduces the concept of «transcendental illusion», which arises when reason attempts to go beyond possible experience and speculate about things that cannot be empirically known.
• Kant critiques traditional proofs of God's existence, such as the ontological, cosmological, and teleological arguments, asserting that they cannot be proven by pure reason.
• Kant argues that space and time are not objective properties of things but forms of sensory perception imposed on all our perceptions.
• The book had a tremendous impact on the development of philosophy, especially on German idealism and subsequent philosophy, including the works of Hegel, Fichte, and Schelling.