Spinoza or the Other Critique

Abstract

The expression ‘other critique’ may seem inappropriate insofar as in modern philosophy the idea of critique is primarily defined with reference to Kant. Critique in this sense first of all seeks the a priori conditions of possibility that allow scientific knowledge to be distinguished from the illusions of metaphysical and dogmatic reason. For many historians, it was Kant who brought to completion the movement that began as a critique of ancient, primarily biblical, texts. Conceiving of critique as the tribunal of reason, he gave to the term ‘critique’ a scope that goes far beyond the understanding of critique as mere textual criticism: critique became the task of a philosophy based on the epistemological primacy of transcendental subjectivity. Reformulating the doctrine of purposiveness in terms of the ends of reason, Kant maintained a creationist perspective that, bereft of any theoretical and explanatory value, is said to regulate our understanding of the world as well as our free actions.