Critique of Pure Reason

Summary

Immanuel Kant’s Critique of Pure Reason is a core text of modern philosophy. Presenting an examination of the nature of human reason, its central argument is that the way in which man perceives his environment is a direct consequence of the mind’s ability to act on this environment and convert it into something meaningful. The work brings together two opposing schools of philosophy – rationalism and empiricism – and proposes a third way, which came to be known as transcendental idealism. Critique of Pure Reason proved to be hugely influential, not least on Marx, Heidegger and Nietzsche. In this engaging recording, the ideas and arguments in the Critique are put forward with great clarity.