System and history

pp. 359-379

in: Otfried Höffe, Kant's critique of pure reason, Berlin, Springer, 2009

Abstract

In spite of the vast body of literature that has been dedicated to Kant's first Critique, very little indeed has specifically concerned itself with the last two chapters of the work. In these chapters, which complete what we could call his "meta-philosophy", Kant unfolds the ultimate substantive conclusions of the "Doctrine of Method": the notion of a truly cosmopolitan philosophy and a new conception of the history of philosophy. He thereby harvests the fruits of the "Doctrine of Method", and, in a certain respect, of the whole of the first Critique. The chapter on "The Architectonic of Pure Reason" furnishes the general outline of philosophy as a system of reason organised on the basis of principles, while the final chapter on "The History of Pure Reason" elucidates this outline in more detail. In contrast to the standard approach which feels entitled to ignore this section of the text, we must insist that these two chapters constitute an indispensable part of the argument. For it is only here that Kant has finally gathered together all the elements which permit him to advance from the first Critique as a necessary propaedeutic to the system of philosophy itself. It is certainly true that his claims and observations in these pages are extremely compressed, tend to eschew discussion of various difficulties, and are sometimes even cryptic in character. But it becomes much easier to understand his argument if on occasion we also consult certain parallel points and passages in his lectures.¹