KANT, Immanuel.

Critik der reinen Vernunft (Critique of Pure Reason).

Riga: Johann Friedrich Hartknoch, 1787. SECOND EDITION TP + 2 leaves = Dedication + [VII]-XLIV = Vorrede + [1]-884, Octavo. Warda 60. What is knowledge? How do we know what we know? What are the limits of our knowledge? Kant's "Copernican Revolution" of the eighteenth century rethinks the answers to those questions. His task is to outline the a priori conditions of human knowledge; his revolution, to suggest that an object of knowledge conforms to our mind. The human mind imposes itself (via the categories and intuitions) on the object. We cannot know the thing-in-itself (the noumena). Rather, our knowledge is limited to the phenomena, that which becomes known after being filtered through the human mind. This is the first appearance of the so-called "B" text which Kant heavily revised and which must be compared and contrasted with the original, largely misunderstood, First Edition "A" text of 1781. Kant included here his own substantial corrections that form the basis of all later editions. This is the definitive copy of Kant's Magnum Opus, arguably the most important book of philosophy published in modern times. Philosophers often measure Western thought in terms of "Before Kant and After Kant." "Kant's great achievement was to conclude finally the line on which philosophical speculation had proceeded in the eighteenth century, and to open up a new and more comprehensive system of dealing with the problems of philosophy'" (PMM 137). Contemporary covers with original marbled boards and a spine that is quite worn, yet retains the beautiful contemporary label at the top. Corners and edges with slight bumping and chipping. Exceptionally clean and bright pages throughout with pages 454 through 489 unnumbered as usual. Hand-scripted notes on recto of front and rear free fly-leaf. A beautiful copy of one of the most important texts of Western philosophy.

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