Kant and the Capacity to Judge [Hardcover]

Beatrice Longuenesse (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0691043485 | ISBN-13: 978-0691043487 | Publication Date: December 22, 1997

Kant claims to have established his table of categories or "pure concepts of the understanding" according to the "guiding thread" provided by logical forms of judgment. By drawing extensively on Kant's logical writings, Béatrice Longuenesse analyzes this controversial claim, and then follows the thread through its continuation in the transcendental deduction of the categories, the transcendental schemata, and the principles of pure understanding. The result is a systematic, persuasive new interpretation of the Critique of Pure Reason.

Longuenesse shows that although Kant adopts his inventory of the forms of judgment from logic textbooks of his time, he is nevertheless original in selecting just those forms he holds to be indispensable to our ability to relate representations to objects. Kant gives formal representation to this relation between conceptual thought and its objects by introducing the term "x" into his analysis of logical forms to stand for the object that is "thought under" the concepts that are combined in judgment. This "x" plays no role in Kant's forms of logical inference, but instead plays a role in clarifying the relation between logical forms (forms of concept subordination) and combinations ("syntheses") of perceptual data, necessary for empirical cognition.

Considering Kant's logical forms of judgment thus helps illuminate crucial aspects of the Transcendental Analytic as a whole, while revealing the systematic unity between Kant's theory of judgment in the first Critique and his analysis of "merely reflective" (aesthetic and teleological) judgments in the third Critique.

Editorial Reviews

Review

Béatrice Longuenesse has written a bold, important, and exciting book concerning the major arguments of the Transcendental Analytic. Moreover, the entire work is organized around a central thesis that runs directly counter to most contemporary readings of the Critique. . . . I think that it is fair to say that from now on no serious interpreter will be able to ignore either the 'guiding thread' itself or her analysis of it. -- Review

Review

Béatrice Longuenesse's new book is a thorough reconsideration of Kant's first Critique, animated by Kant's greatest philosophical ambitions and informed by the best erudition, superior philosophical intelligence, and close textual fidelity. Kant and the Capacity to Judge will prove to be an important and influential event in Kant studies and in philosophy. (Robert B. Pippin, University of Chicago )

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 440 pages
• Publisher: Princeton University Press (December 22, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0691043485
• ISBN-13: 978-0691043487
• Product Dimensions: 9.4 x 6.4 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.7 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,590,241 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars dense, September 15, 2004

By 

Eric E. Wilso "grad student/teacher" (atlanta) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Kant and the Capacity to Judge: Sensibility and Discursivity in the Transcendental Analytic of the "Critique of Pure Reason" (Paperback)

This book is an impressive accomplishment: it is perhaps the most philosophically rich and historically informed treatment of Kant's account of the epistemic and semantic function of the forms of judgment available. If you make it through, you'll learn at least as much as you ever wanted to know (if not more) about Kant's logic, and his treatment of the cognitive role of imagination. To my knowledge, no one has been able to give such a far-reaching account of Kant's table of judgments, and its place in his thought as a whole (both in the first and third Critiques). Unlike interpreters of an "analytic" bent, Longuenesse takes very seriously the psychological side of Kant's idiom. But that doesn't imply that she has much in common with those readers who see in Kant a forerunner of cognitive science (e.g., Kitcher). Instead, she finds in Kant a kind of Aristotelianism. Readers accustomed to thinking of Kant as the "all-crushing" critic of metaphysics will be surprised to find the details of her interpretation hanging at least partially on the plausbility of attributing to him a rational psychology that enlists a teleological vocabulary to do a lot of its heavy lifting. Readers may also become frustrated with the extent to which her interpretation makes use of idiosyncratic expressions--such as "reflected under concepts"--that don't really get explained. This reader did, anyway... And it's quite strange that determining judgments end up getting characterized as a species of reflection. For just about any reader, the book is tough going. In fact, by virtue of the sheer amount of historical and textual detail, Longuenesse's commentary threatens to eclipse the work it's meant to explicate. Readers looking for something to help them slog through the first Critique should look elsewhere. Only grad students and professors specializing in the study of Kant are likely to find this accessible at all. Plus, Longuenesse so rarely employs anything but the vocabulary of 18th century philosophy, philosophers and students used to a more contemporary vocabulary will likely find very few points of entry. The specialists, however, will find this at least as fascinating as it is difficult. It is one of the very few commentaries that deserves to be treated as required reading. Those who work through it are unlikely to look at the "Critique of Pure Reason" in the same way again.

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Longuenesse's Kant, June 21, 2004

By 

Ian Eagleson (Malvern, PA United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Kant and the Capacity to Judge: Sensibility and Discursivity in the Transcendental Analytic of the "Critique of Pure Reason" (Paperback)

Longuenesse's work is the most important work on Kant's epistemology in the 1990's. She makes an original contribution both to Kant's logic and, perhaps more importantly, to his use of the notion of imagination. The connection between imagination and judgment is a thorny issue in Kant, but Longuenesse stakes out a position in this regard that must be addressed by any serious scholar in this area.

8 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A very detail-oriented reading of the First Critique, April 30, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: Kant and the Capacity to Judge: Sensibility and Discursivity in the Transcendental Analytic of the "Critique of Pure Reason" (Paperback)

Longuenesse's book fills an important hole Kant's scholarship, but does not deal systematically with the status of judgment in Kant. The book is very much focused on the first Critique. If you are interested in the 3rd Critique, read Makkreel's or Allison's books on the subject. The latter will probably make Longuenesse's views on reflective vs. determinate judgment clearer than reading Longuenesse's book itself, even as Allison's own reading is somewhat questionable in seeing only aesthetic and teleological judgments as 'merely reflective.' If you are interested in practical judgments in Kant, write the book yourself.