Routledge Philosophy GuideBook to Kant and the Critique of Pure Reason

I approached my study of the CPR by reading a few shorter summaries first, then reading this, then reading the Critique itself. In an ideal world you should always read philosophy in the source text, and most of the time this is the only way you will ever truly understand it. However in this instance, as I was reading the CPR, I very often felt that I wasn't getting very much more out of it than I had already got from the Routledge Guide, which is a testament both to the quality of the explanation in this book and to the rather dry and somewhat overcomplexity of the source text. This book really is a fantastic explanation that solidified the concepts for me in a way which none of the previous summaries I had read had even come close to. However, there were several parts where this wasn't the case. The Transcendental Deduction in the Analytic (both the most important and the most complicated part of the book) I only really GOT from the source text. The reason for this is also an interesting critique of the Routledge guide: the occasional problem is that the guide often presents an analysis of the concepts of the Critique within the context of the fact that the book can either be interpreted from the Analytic tradition or the Continental/Idealist tradition. These two interpretations of the work are very very different, and if you buy into one the other will confuse the hell out of you. Personally I would say that I sit very firmly in the Continental camp in the way that I would read this, in particular I tend to read it very much as proto-phenomenolgy of the Heideggerian variety. Therefore, the description of the deduction in the guide, because it is sensitive to both interpretations, was actually very confusing; and it was only when I read the actual book that I truly understood the transcendental unity of apperception in my own way. However, I am not saying this is a fault of the book; simply that you need to bear this in mind if you intend to read this instead of the source text. One last note for Kindle readers: the book is not tagged very well in the Kindle edition, for example the contents page does not include the actual names of the chapters. Otherwise it's OK though

In my opinion this is an excellent and clear guide. Professor Guyer (authority on Kant) describes the guide as the best introduction to Kant's Critique written in the last 20 years. Guyer is translator of the Cambridge edition of the works of Kant, editor of the Cambridge Companion to Kant and author of at least one leading textbook and many articles. Not a man to give praise lightly, I would suggest. I found the Guide made clear that which the Kemp-Smith translation of Kant did not, by explaining some of the historical background and giving examples. The guide also explains how the idealist and empiricist arguments, prevalent at the time Kant wrote, were refuted by Kant. Without the historical background and the reasoning of the idealists and empiricists being explained, the reader will struggle to understand what Kant is trying to do. Reading Gardner makes what Kant has to say clear, which is not to say that you should not read Kant himself. But I would not reverse the process and only read Kant, that way lies madness and frustration. The Critique is the Mount Everest of philosophy, and you will need a sherpa. Gardner's book is the support you will need.

I suspect most people reading philosophy have never dared to scale the CPR but have relied on reports from the summit in the form of encyclopaedia entries, or one of the numerous guides on the market. Most of these are probably wrong to the extent that they purport to tell you what Kant said. This present volume is essential reading because of its honesty. I lost count of the number of times Kant’s position was described as “confused”, “perplexing”, “far from clear” and so forth. The result is that anyone struggling with CPR will be comforted by an acknowledgement that she is attempting probably the most difficult philosophical text there is, whilst anyone simply wanting to understand Kant and all subsequent philosophy, both analytic and continental, will come away with a clear appreciation of why it all stems from what you make of what you think Kant was trying to say.

Although a used one, the book is in perfect conditions.

too academic

Could have saved me months (or maybe years of study). Start with this early in you Kant reading. Essential reading.

cool

Five stars for the content but the quality of the book itself is very poor, with multiple pages falling out on my first read.

It is one among the source to understand Kant .... but b4 v enter into Kant should read Aristotle metaphysics, Einstein theory like relativity & general,and origin of philosophy, society, morality..... so read more than​ 100 times to understand...

The nice thing about this book is that the reader feels like the author is "reading the critique" with the reader herself. Major argumentative difficulties are taken up as they occur, and Gardner analyses Kant's support for his framework keenly. Another pleasant aspect of Gardner's reading is his attempt to show how Kant's transcendental idealism is systematic, that is, how the first Critique is not merely a compendium of conveniently assembled arguments (as some great interpreters like P.F. Strawson have claimed). Rather, by viewing Kant's project as a "metaphysics of experience" in light of the "Copernican revolution" (in which objects must conform, in some way, to the subjects who know them), Gardner unapologetically reviews the plausibility of Kant's views as a system, not as a list of claims that are supported via analytic argumentation. At times, I found Gardner's criticism of Kant's arguments somewhat dense and over-compressed. That said, this is not surprising for such a guide, and the most important arguments/developments in the book, like the Refutation of Idealism and the Transcendental Deduction, are given a full, critical, and clear treatment. For those looking to catch the Kant's overall meaning in the Critique, this book is highly recommended. Its brevity is also laudable. The guide is accessible to those with a basic knowledge of modern philosophy, though not for complete philosophy novices.

『純粋理性批判』の入門書として読み、少しだけ同書に対する理解が深まったように思います（「少し」なのは無論私の無能力の故）。最後まで楽しく？読みましたが、入門書としては解釈の相違に関する記載が比較的多く、oxymoronicですが上級者向け入門書というような印象も持ちました。

I am really enjoying this as a guide and companion as I make my way through CPR. It explains some of the key concepts and also some of the main questions that come up. Taking an early example, the book goes into the question of what impact it has on Kant's framework that geometry (in physics at least) is now understood to be empirical.

This is a classic text on Kant. However, it is not easy. I would recommend serious readers who are otherwise not familiar with Kant to get some introduction (I read Broad's "Kant: An Introduction") which helped a lot. There is a lot of emphasis in the later part of the book on the differentiation between Kant's noumenalism and Berkeley's idealism, which maybe not of interest to everybody.