The Aim of Kant’s ‘Critique of Pure Reason’

Abstract

At first sight, the question of the aim of the Critique of Pure Reason may appear to be historical rather than philosophical in nature. Most Kantian scholars seem to have regarded it as such although Kant himself, as one can easily infer from the doctrines of the Architectonic of Pure Reason, would consider it as a major philosophical issue. Accordingly, those who subscribe to a historical view of the topic at hand or treat of it as pertaining to the Entwicklungsgeschichte of the Critique¹ either completely ignore Kant’s own teachings on this point or implicitly deny their philosophical validity, without inquiring into the meaning and truth of their author’s own words.