Kant's Metaphysic of Experience - Vol I

KANTS METAPHYSIC OF EXPERIENCE- A COMMENTARY ON THE FIRST HALF OF THE KRITIK DER REINEN VERNUNFT By H. J. PATON. Originall published in 1936. PREFACE: IT is a scandal to philosophical scholarship, and not least to German philosophical scholarship, that, more than a hundred and fifty years after the publication of the Kritik of Pure Reason, we still lack a commentary comparable with such works as that of Pacius on the Organon of Aristotle or even that of Adam on the Republic of Plato. Of all the authors who write about Kants greatest work there is none who condescends to explain it sentence by sentence Hans Vaihinger, who alone set out to do so, attempted to write a commentary, not only upon the Kritik y but upon all its previous commentators and, as was but natural, he gave up this impossible task when he had proceeded but a little way. In the absence of a detailed commentary we have an inevitable welter of con flicting opinions about Kants doctrines. More serious still, the unfortunate student and even, if I may judge from my own experience, many teachers of philosophy have the vaguest idea as to the meaning of Kants words. There are sentences in which the reader is unable to decide to which of several nouns the relative and demonstrative pronouns refer, or which of two nouns is to be regarded as subject and which as object. In vain do we look for a reliable guide even in these elementary matters and the plain fact is that most students find many passages, and too often crucial passages, to which they can attach no meaning at all. It is not surprising that they accept the opinions of others at second-hand without being able either to confirm or to criticise them. It is not my aim to write a commentary of the type required this is a task which should be reserved to a German writing for Germans. Nevertheless where the language is most difficult, and especially in such passages as the Transcendental Deduction and the argument of the Analogies, I have attempted to analyse Kants thought almost sentence by sentence and everywhere I have sought to give chapter and verse for my interpretations, so that the reader may be able to make an independent estimate of their truth. A method of this kind is not without its disadvantages. If difficulties are dealt with in detail, the explanation is bound itself to be difficult yet it must be remembered that a commen tary on the Kritik, by the very nature of its subject matter, cannot be light reading and its usefulness must depend on the extent to which it explains real difficulties, or at the very least explains where the real difficulties lie. Again, if this method is followed, Kants many expositions of the Trans cendental Deduction must impose a good deal of repetition on the commentator but there is no way of understanding the argument except by studying its details and any reader who believes he has mastered the details can confine his atten tion to Chapters XXX and XXXI, where I set out my general interpretation and criticisms...