In this book, Daniel Patrick Kelly examines Kants Critique of Pure Reason through the lens of historical contextualization and highlights the importance of Kants "Transcendental Dialectic" in the greater justification of his overarching transcendental idealism.
Kant in Context: The Historical Primacy of the Transcendental Dialectic examines the introduction of Kants critical philosophy through the lens of historical contextualization. Daniel Patrick Kelly argues that Kants seismic Copernican epistemic turn must be adequately positioned and understood within the German philosophical landscape that developed in Spinozas wake. This necessary historical analysis illuminates the development and comparative strength of Kants emergent transcendental idealism. However, in order to render the introduction of Kants critical system sufficient to this historical task, this book heuristically organizes the contents of the Critique of Pure Reason to highlight the works meta-philosophical historical conclusions. In this revised take on Kants Critique, Kelly argues that the "Transcendental Aesthetic" and subsequent "Transcendental Dialectic" emerge as foundational in understanding Kants Critique as a profound historical-methodological development, as they justify and ground the call for his new and supporting science of cognition, placing the "Transcendental Analytic" as inherently secondary in this heuristic reading of the Critique. The authors overarching contention is that Kants identification of the dialectical limitations of metaphysical reasoning provides a more solid justification for Kants transcendental idealism than that of the novel postulates of the "Analytic."
Introduction
Chapter 1: Orthodox German Rationalism
Chapter 2: The Rise of Contra-Rationalism
Chapter 3: The Transcendental Aesthetic and Kants Skepticism in
Representation
Chapter 4: Roadmap to the Historical Primacy of the Dialectic
Chapter 5: The Supporting and Enduring Role of the Analytic
Conclusion
Daniel Patrick Kelly is Director of Administration and Strategy in the Office of Curriculum, Assessment, & Teaching Transformation at the University at Buffalo.