A New Elucidation of the First Principles of Metaphysical Cognition
Kant reexamines identity, contradiction, and determining reason. He distinguishes grounds of knowledge from grounds of existence, then investigates change, coexistence, and relations among substances.
Understanding the text
This Latin habilitation dissertation still engages Leibniz and Wolff. Its distinctions should not be equated without qualification with the categories of the Critique of Pure Reason.
Key points
- 01
Knowing and existing
Why we know something need not be what brings its object into existence.
- 02
Determination and change
Explaining an event requires conditions making succession possible.
- 03
Relations among substances
Coexisting beings raise a problem of connection unresolved by simply placing them alongside one another.
How to read it
Follow propositions and proofs, identifying metaphysical commitments Kant subsequently changes.
Editions & sources
Summaries and key points are original editorial interpretations. They accompany reading the work and do not replace an edition of the text. Editorial method ↗