The Critique of Pure Reason
In "The Critique of Pure Reason," Immanuel Kant explores the limitations and scope of human understanding, arguing that while our knowledge begins with experience, it is shaped by innate concepts and categories of the mind. He distinguishes between phenomena (the world as we perceive it) and noumena (things in themselves), asserting that we can never truly know the latter. Kant's work lays the foundation for modern philosophy by addressing how we acquire knowledge and the nature of reality.
26 curated highlights from this book
Key Insights & Memorable Quotes
Below are the most impactful passages and quotes from The Critique of Pure Reason, carefully selected to capture the essence of the book.
Thoughts without content are empty, intuitions without concepts are blind.
All our knowledge begins with experience, but it does not follow that it arises from experience.
Concepts without intuitions are empty, intuitions without concepts are blind.
Experience teaches us that we can never be certain of the future.
The understanding can only think that which it produces itself, according to its own rules.
The distinction between the noumenon and the phenomenon is an essential feature of my philosophy.
The critique of pure reason is a judgment of reason upon itself.
Enlightenment is man's emergence from his self-imposed immaturity.
In order to be able to think, we must be able to judge.
The limits of my language mean the limits of my world.
Experience without theory is blind, but theory without experience is mere intellectual play.
The understanding can only think what it has already perceived through intuition.
The categories are nothing but functions of the understanding.
Metaphysics is not a science, but a mere pre-science.
The critique of pure reason is the only means to distinguish between true and false knowledge.
The mind is the lens through which we perceive the world.
Synthetic judgments are those that add something to our knowledge.
Axioms are not mere assumptions; they are necessary truths.
Experience is the only source of knowledge.
The understanding does not derive its laws from, but imposes them upon, the objects of experience.
The critique of pure reason must be a critique of the faculty of reason itself.
Categories are those a priori concepts that we apply to the manifold of intuition.
Human reason has a tendency to go beyond the limits of experience.
Ideas are the necessary conditions under which we are able to think about things.
The principle of non-contradiction is the foundation of all logical reasoning.
Metaphysics is the science of the limits of human understanding.