11.04.09
Bryan Magee on Kant
We were asked yesterday for an introduction to Kant. I cited a link to Amazon for Korner’s short Kant, a classic you can get second hand for almost nothing there.
The problem with Kant is that you will be driven to try and sit down and do The Critique Of Pure Reason straight on. In fact, that can be the wrong approach, since you have to go through a large number of very difficult things to get to the main idea, which is actually clearly stated in the Dialectic section.
It is the paradoxes and antinomies that really make Kant’s thinking clear.
I recommend a book linked below by Bryan Magee, who is actually a fan of Schopenhauer, but who discusses all the issues from Kant onward very simply, and does so in the context of modern philosophy.
Here’s the link:
Confessions of a Philosopher: A Personal Journey Through Western Philosophy from Plato to Popper