Kant's Transcendental Arguments: Disciplining Pure Reason

The Continent and Britain fought over more than geography, politics and empire in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Their respective philosophers battled over rationalism (the Continental school) and empiricism (the British favorite). Upon Kant's publication of his Critique of Pure Reason in 1781, the conflict appeared to be resolved, which did not lead to a lasting peace but at least reconciled the virtues of rationalism to the scientific rigor of empiricism, although subsequent generations have occasionally gone astray of Kant's original intent. Here Stapleford (philosophy, U. of Witwatersrand) offers the first extended analysis of Kant's methods of proof in philosophy, presenting a model based on Kant's own descriptions of his procedure. Stapleford then applies the model to Kant's proofs, a process that removes some of the common misperceptions about Kant's aims and doctrines. Especially interesting is Stapleford's description of the transcendental model and the transcendental refutation off empirical idealism. Annotation c2008 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Scott Stapleford is Assistant Professor of Philosophy at St. Thomas University (Fredericton), Canada. He has previously published articles in a number of academic journals.