Publisher's Synopsis
This major study of Kant's account of reason argues that Kant's wide-ranging interests and goals can only be understood by redirecting attention from epistemological questions of his work to those concerning the nature of reason. Rather than accepting a notion of reason given by his predecessors, a fundamental aim of Kant's philosophy is to reconceive the nature of theoretical and practical reason, as well as his claim that his metaphysics was driven by practical and political ends.;The text begins by discussing the historical roots of Kant's conception of reason, and by showing Kant's solution to problems which earlier conceptions left unresolved. Kant's notion of reason itself is examined through a discussion of all activities Kant attributes to reason. In separate chapters discussing the role of reason in science, morality, religion and philosophy, the book explores Kant's distinctions between reason and knowledge, and his difficult account of the regulative principles of reason.
