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+THE CRITIQUE OF PURE REASON
+
+by Immanuel Kant
+
+translated by J. M. D. Meiklejohn
+
+
+
+PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION, 1781
+
+Human reason, in one sphere of its cognition, is called upon to
+consider questions, which it cannot decline, as they are presented
+by its own nature, but which it cannot answer, as they transcend every
+faculty of the mind.
+
+It falls into this difficulty without any fault of its own. It
+begins with principles, which cannot be dispensed with in the field
+of experience, and the truth and sufficiency of which are, at the same
+time, insured by experience. With these principles it rises, in
+obedience to the laws of its own nature, to ever higher and more
+remote conditions. But it quickly discovers that, in this way, its
+labours must remain ever incomplete, because new questions never cease
+to present themselves; and thus it finds itself compelled to have
+recourse to principles which transcend the region of experience, while
+they are regarded by common sense without distrust. It thus falls into
+confusion and contradictions, from which it conjectures the presence
+of latent errors, which, however, it is unable to discover, because
+the principles it employs, transcending the limits of experience,
+cannot be tested by that criterion. The arena of these endless
+contests is called Metaphysic.
+
+Time was, when she was the queen of all the sciences; and, if we
+take the will for the deed, she certainly deserves, so far as
+regards the high importance of her object-matter, this title of
+honour. Now, it is the fashion of the time to heap contempt and
+scorn upon her; and the matron mourns, forlorn and forsaken, like
+Hecuba:
+
+ Modo maxima rerum,
+ Tot generis, natisque potens...
+ Nunc trahor exul, inops.
+ -- Ovid, Metamorphoses. xiii
+
+At first, her government, under the administration of the
+dogmatists, was an absolute despotism. But, as the legislative
+continued to show traces of the ancient barbaric rule, her empire
+gradually broke up, and intestine wars introduced the reign of
+anarchy; while the sceptics, like nomadic tribes, who hate a permanent
+habitation and settled mode of living, attacked from time to time
+those who had organized themselves into civil communities. But their
+number was, very happily, small; and thus they could not entirely
+put a stop to the exertions of those who persisted in raising new
+edifices, although on no settled or uniform plan. In recent times
+the hope dawned upon us of seeing those disputes settled, and the
+legitimacy of her claims established by a kind of physiology of the
+human understanding--that of the celebrated Locke. But it was found
+that--although it was affirmed that this so-called queen could not
+refer her descent to any higher source than that of common experience,
+a circumstance which necessarily brought suspicion on her claims--as
+this genealogy was incorrect, she persisted in the advancement of
+her claims to sovereignty. Thus metaphysics necessarily fell back into
+the antiquated and rotten constitution of dogmatism, and again
+became obnoxious to the contempt from which efforts had been made to
+save it. At present, as all methods, according to the general
+persuasion, have been tried in vain, there reigns nought but weariness
+and complete indifferentism--the mother of chaos and night in the
+scientific world, but at the same time the source of, or at least
+the prelude to, the re-creation and reinstallation of a science,
+when it has fallen into confusion, obscurity, and disuse from ill
+directed effort.
+
+For it is in reality vain to profess indifference in regard to
+such inquiries, the object of which cannot be indifferent to humanity.
+Besides, these pretended indifferentists, however much they may try
+to disguise themselves by the assumption of a popular style and by
+changes on the language of the schools, unavoidably fall into
+metaphysical declarations and propositions, which they profess to
+regard with so much contempt. At the same time, this indifference,
+which has arisen in the world of science, and which relates to that
+kind of knowledge which we should wish to see destroyed the last, is
+a phenomenon that well deserves our attention and reflection. It is
+plainly not the effect of the levity, but of the matured judgement*
+of the age, which refuses to be any longer entertained with illusory
+knowledge, It is, in fact, a call to reason, again to undertake the
+most laborious of all tasks--that of self-examination, and to
+establish a tribunal, which may secure it in its well-grounded claims,
+while it pronounces against all baseless assumptions and
+pretensions, not in an arbitrary manner, but according to its own
+eternal and unchangeable laws. This tribunal is nothing less than
+the critical investigation of pure reason.
+
+[*Footnote: We very often hear complaints of the shallowness of the
+present age, and of the decay of profound science. But I do not think
+that those which rest upon a secure foundation, such as mathematics,
+physical science, etc., in the least deserve this reproach, but that
+they rather maintain their ancient fame, and in the latter case,
+indeed, far surpass it. The same would be the case with the other
+kinds of cognition, if their principles were but firmly established.
+In the absence of this security, indifference, doubt, and finally,
+severe criticism are rather signs of a profound habit of thought.
+Our age is the age of criticism, to which everything must be
+subjected. The sacredness of religion, and the authority of
+legislation, are by many regarded as grounds of exemption from the
+examination of this tribunal. But, if they on they are exempted,
+they become the subjects of just suspicion, and cannot lay claim to
+sincere respect, which reason accords only to that which has stood
+the test of a free and public examination.]
+
+I do not mean by this a criticism of books and systems, but a
+critical inquiry into the faculty of reason, with reference to the
+cognitions to which it strives to attain without the aid of
+experience; in other words, the solution of the question regarding
+the possibility or impossibility of metaphysics, and the determination
+of the origin, as well as of the extent and limits of this science.
+All this must be done on the basis of principles.
+
+This path--the only one now remaining--has been entered upon by
+me; and I flatter myself that I have, in this way, discovered the
+cause of--and consequently the mode of removing--all the errors
+which have hitherto set reason at variance with itself, in the
+sphere of non-empirical thought. I have not returned an evasive answer
+to the questions of reason, by alleging the inability and limitation
+of the faculties of the mind; I have, on the contrary, examined them
+completely in the light of principles, and, after having discovered
+the cause of the doubts and contradictions into which reason fell,
+have solved them to its perfect satisfaction. It is true, these
+questions have not been solved as dogmatism, in its vain fancies and
+desires, had expected; for it can only be satisfied by the exercise
+of magical arts, and of these I have no knowledge. But neither do these
+come within the compass of our mental powers; and it was the duty of
+philosophy to destroy the illusions which had their origin in
+misconceptions, whatever darling hopes and valued expectations may
+be ruined by its explanations. My chief aim in this work has been
+thoroughness; and I make bold to say that there is not a single
+metaphysical problem that does not find its solution, or at least
+the key to its solution, here. Pure reason is a perfect unity; and
+therefore, if the principle presented by it prove to be insufficient
+for the solution of even a single one of those questions to which
+the very nature of reason gives birth, we must reject it, as we could
+not be perfectly certain of its sufficiency in the case of the others.
+
+While I say this, I think I see upon the countenance of the reader
+signs of dissatisfaction mingled with contempt, when he hears
+declarations which sound so boastful and extravagant; and yet they
+are beyond comparison more moderate than those advanced by the commonest
+author of the commonest philosophical programme, in which the
+dogmatist professes to demonstrate the simple nature of the soul, or
+the necessity of a primal being. Such a dogmatist promises to extend
+human knowledge beyond the limits of possible experience; while I
+humbly confess that this is completely beyond my power. Instead of
+any such attempt, I confine myself to the examination of reason alone
+and its pure thought; and I do not need to seek far for the
+sum-total of its cognition, because it has its seat in my own mind.
+Besides, common logic presents me with a complete and systematic
+catalogue of all the simple operations of reason; and it is my task
+to answer the question how far reason can go, without the material
+presented and the aid furnished by experience.
+
+So much for the completeness and thoroughness necessary in the
+execution of the present task. The aims set before us are not
+arbitrarily proposed, but are imposed upon us by the nature of
+cognition itself.
+
+The above remarks relate to the matter of our critical inquiry. As
+regards the form, there are two indispensable conditions, which any
+one who undertakes so difficult a task as that of a critique of pure
+reason, is bound to fulfil. These conditions are certitude and
+clearness.
+
+As regards certitude, I have fully convinced myself that, in this
+sphere of thought, opinion is perfectly inadmissible, and that
+everything which bears the least semblance of an hypothesis must be
+excluded, as of no value in such discussions. For it is a necessary
+condition of every cognition that is to be established upon a priori
+grounds that it shall be held to be absolutely necessary; much more
+is this the case with an attempt to determine all pure a priori
+cognition, and to furnish the standard--and consequently an example--
+of all apodeictic (philosophical) certitude. Whether I have
+succeeded in what I professed to do, it is for the reader to
+determine; it is the author's business merely to adduce grounds and
+reasons, without determining what influence these ought to have on
+the mind of his judges. But, lest anything he may have said may become
+the innocent cause of doubt in their minds, or tend to weaken the effect
+which his arguments might otherwise produce--he may be allowed to
+point out those passages which may occasion mistrust or difficulty,
+although these do not concern the main purpose of the present work.
+He does this solely with the view of removing from the mind of the
+reader any doubts which might affect his judgement of the work as a
+whole, and in regard to its ultimate aim.
+
+I know no investigations more necessary for a full insight into
+the nature of the faculty which we call understanding, and at the same
+time for the determination of the rules and limits of its use, than
+those undertaken in the second chapter of the "Transcendental
+Analytic," under the title of "Deduction of the Pure Conceptions of
+the Understanding"; and they have also cost me by far the greatest
+labour--labour which, I hope, will not remain uncompensated. The
+view there taken, which goes somewhat deeply into the subject, has
+two sides, The one relates to the objects of the pure understanding,
+and is intended to demonstrate and to render comprehensible the
+objective validity of its a priori conceptions; and it forms for
+this reason an essential part of the Critique. The other considers
+the pure understanding itself, its possibility and its powers of
+cognition--that is, from a subjective point of view; and, although
+this exposition is of great importance, it does not belong essentially
+to the main purpose of the work, because the grand question is what
+and how much can reason and understanding, apart from experience,
+cognize, and not, how is the faculty of thought itself possible? As
+the latter is an inquiry into the cause of a given effect, and has
+thus in it some semblance of an hypothesis (although, as I shall
+show on another occasion, this is really not the fact), it would
+seem that, in the present instance, I had allowed myself to enounce
+a mere opinion, and that the reader must therefore be at liberty to
+hold a different opinion. But I beg to remind him that, if my
+subjective deduction does not produce in his mind the conviction of
+its certitude at which I aimed, the objective deduction, with which
+alone the present work is properly concerned, is in every respect
+satisfactory.
+
+As regards clearness, the reader has a right to demand, in the first
+place, discursive or logical clearness, that is, on the basis of
+conceptions, and, secondly, intuitive or aesthetic clearness, by means
+of intuitions, that is, by examples or other modes of illustration
+in concreto. I have done what I could for the first kind of
+intelligibility. This was essential to my purpose; and it thus
+became the accidental cause of my inability to do complete justice
+to the second requirement. I have been almost always at a loss, during
+the progress of this work, how to settle this question. Examples and
+illustrations always appeared to me necessary, and, in the first
+sketch of the Critique, naturally fell into their proper places. But
+I very soon became aware of the magnitude of my task, and the numerous
+problems with which I should be engaged; and, as I perceived that this
+critical investigation would, even if delivered in the driest
+scholastic manner, be far from being brief, I found it unadvisable
+to enlarge it still more with examples and explanations, which are
+necessary only from a popular point of view. I was induced to take
+this course from the consideration also that the present work is not
+intended for popular use, that those devoted to science do not require
+such helps, although they are always acceptable, and that they would
+have materially interfered with my present purpose. Abbe Terrasson
+remarks with great justice that, if we estimate the size of a work,
+not from the number of its pages, but from the time which we require
+to make ourselves master of it, it may be said of many a book that
+it would be much shorter, if it were not so short. On the other
+hand, as regards the comprehensibility of a system of speculative
+cognition, connected under a single principle, we may say with equal
+justice: many a book would have been much clearer, if it had not
+been intended to be so very clear. For explanations and examples,
+and other helps to intelligibility, aid us in the comprehension of
+parts, but they distract the attention, dissipate the mental power
+of the reader, and stand in the way of his forming a clear
+conception of the whole; as he cannot attain soon enough to a survey
+of the system, and the colouring and embellishments bestowed upon it
+prevent his observing its articulation or organization--which is the
+most important consideration with him, when he comes to judge of its
+unity and stability.
+
+The reader must naturally have a strong inducement to co-operate
+with the present author, if he has formed the intention of erecting
+a complete and solid edifice of metaphysical science, according to
+the plan now laid before him. Metaphysics, as here represented, is
+the only science which admits of completion--and with little labour,
+if it is united, in a short time; so that nothing will be left to future
+generations except the task of illustrating and applying it
+didactically. For this science is nothing more than the inventory of
+all that is given us by pure reason, systematically arranged.
+Nothing can escape our notice; for what reason produces from itself
+cannot lie concealed, but must be brought to the light by reason
+itself, so soon as we have discovered the common principle of the
+ideas we seek. The perfect unity of this kind of cognitions, which
+are based upon pure conceptions, and uninfluenced by any empirical
+element, or any peculiar intuition leading to determinate
+experience, renders this completeness not only practicable, but also
+necessary.
+
+ Tecum habita, et noris quam sit tibi curta supellex.
+ -- Persius. Satirae iv. 52.
+
+Such a system of pure speculative reason I hope to be able to
+publish under the title of Metaphysic of Nature*. The content of this
+work (which will not be half so long) will be very much richer than
+that of the present Critique, which has to discover the sources of
+this cognition and expose the conditions of its possibility, and at
+the same time to clear and level a fit foundation for the scientific
+edifice. In the present work, I look for the patient hearing and the
+impartiality of a judge; in the other, for the good-will and
+assistance of a co-labourer. For, however complete the list of
+principles for this system may be in the Critique, the correctness
+of the system requires that no deduced conceptions should be absent.
+These cannot be presented a priori, but must be gradually
+discovered; and, while the synthesis of conceptions has been fully
+exhausted in the Critique, it is necessary that, in the proposed work,
+the same should be the case with their analysis. But this will be
+rather an amusement than a labour.
+
+[*Footnote: In contradistinction to the Metaphysic of Ethics. This
+work was never published.]
+
+
+
+
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