Kant's early critics : the empiricist critique of the theoretical philosophy /

Editor Sassen (McMaster Univ.) freshly translates and thematically organizes the reactions of Kant's contemporaries to the first edition of the Critique of Pure Reason (1781) and thus renders a considerable service to students of European thought in the 18th century. Using articles written between 1781 and 1789 by Jacobi, Feder, Tiedemann, and other 18th-century commentators, Sassen makes it easy to follow the complex polemics on space, time, logic, empiricism, idealism, and Kant's critical philosophy in general. Although somewhat forgotten today, these debates and discussions are of great historical importance because they led directly to some of the crucial revisions in the second edition of the Critique. This collection of articles and essays forms a companion edition to the Cambridge edition of the Works of Immanuel Kant. Less advanced readers will be helped by biographical notes, a very simple German-English glossary, and a short but helpful bibliography. This book will be very useful to any reader interested in the ideas of the Enlightenment and should encourage students and professors from many disciplines to revisit this important chapter in European intellectual history. R. Schumaker University of Maryland University College-Europe