The Unity of Reason: Essays on Kant's Philosophy [Hardcover]

Dieter Henrich (Author), Richard Velkley (Editor)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0674929055 | ISBN-13: 978-0674929050 | Publication Date: January 1, 1994 | Edition: 1st Ed. (U.S.)

Kant holds a key position in the history of modern philosophy as the last great figure to belong both to the Anglo-American analytic tradition and the Continental tradition. A scholar of Kant and German idealism, Dieter Henrich combines an encyclopaedic knowledge of Kant's texts with an understanding of the philosophers of preceding and succeeding centuries. Henrich's distinctive contribution has been to break through the entrenched stereotypes of the ontological and neo-Kantian schools of Kant interpretation in order to place Kant's major ideas in their historical and developmental context, demonstrating their enduring philosophical significance. Henrich has shown how Kant's attempt to overcome the dichotomy between rationalism and moral-sense philosophy led to a lifelong struggle to establish the unity of theoretical and practical reason and the inseparability of the motivational force of the principle of ethics from its function as a principle for ethical judgement. But Henrich has also shown how Kant's project of unification contained fundamental tensions that called forth the projects of such post-Kantians as Schiller, Fichte and Hegel, which explored new approaches within the Kantian framework. The essays in this book present a persuasive picture of the development of Kant's moral philosophy and give an account of the argumentative strategies determining all aspects of Kant's philosophy. They reflect Henrich's general interest in the unity of reason as well as his special interest in self-consciousness as both a key concept of modern philosophy and the key to the highly disputed interpretation of Kant's transcendental deduction of categories.

Editorial Reviews

Language Notes

Text: English
Original Language: German

About the Author

Dieter Henrich is Professor Emeritus at the University of Munich and the author of dozens of books and articles.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 249 pages
• Publisher: Harvard University Press; 1st Ed. (U.S.) edition (January 1, 1994)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0674929055
• ISBN-13: 978-0674929050
• Product Dimensions: 9.4 x 6.4 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,729,357 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An erudite quartet of essays on Kant, December 27, 2010

By 

Michael Rooney - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Unity of Reason: Essays on Kant's Philosophy (Hardcover)

This volume contains four lengthy essays on aspects of Kant's philosophy, loosely united around the topics of subjectivity and reason (Vernunft, as opposed to Verstand [the intellect or understanding]). Henrich is extremely well-versed in the intellectual history of Kant's period, and extraordinarily familiar with the fine details of Kant's writings. The first essay is reconstruction of what Kant means by the transcendental unity of subjectivity, and includes a balanced but generally critical evaluation of Heidegger's interpretation of Kant. The second and third essays illuminatingly discuss the role reason plays in Kant's moral philosophy. The fourth and longest essay is a painstakingly nuanced interpretation of one of the most frequently discussed passages in the Critique of Pure Reason, the transcendental deduction. Henrich is the twentieth century's foremost interpreter of Kantian idealism, and these essays form a fine introduction to his work for an English-speaking audience.