The Critique of Judgment

The Critique of Judgment, also translated as the Critique of the Power of Judgment and more commonly referred to as the third Critique, is a philosophical work by Immanuel Kant. Critique of Judgment completes the Critical project begun in the Critique of Pure Reason and the Critique of Practical Reason (the first and second Critiques, respectively). The book is divided into two main sections: the Critique of Aesthetic Judgment and the Critique of Teleological Judgment, and also includes a large overview of the entirety of Kant's Critical system, arranged in its final form. The end result of Kant's Critical Project is that there are certain fundamental antinomies in human Reason, most particularly that there is a complete inability to favor on the one hand the argument that all behavior and thought is determined by external causes, and on the other that there is an actual "spontaneous" causal principle at work in human behavior._x000D_ Immanuel Kant (1724-1804) was a German philosopher, who, according to the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy is "the central figure of modern philosophy." Kant argued that fundamental concepts of the human mind structure human experience, that reason is the source of morality, that aesthetics arises from a faculty of disinterested judgment, that space and time are forms of our understanding, and that the world as it is "in-itself" is unknowable. Kant took himself to have effected a Copernican revolution in philosophy, akin to Copernicus' reversal of the age-old belief that the sun revolved around the earth._x000D_

Immanuel Kant, born April 22, 1724, in Königsberg, then part of Prussia, is one of the most influential philosophers in the history of Western philosophy. His comprehensive and systematic work in epistemology (the theory of knowledge), ethics, and aesthetics greatly influenced all subsequent philosophy, especially the various schools of Kantianism and idealism. Kant's endeavor to set out to the limits of metaphysics and understanding led to what is often considered his greatest work, 'The Critique of Pure Reason' (1781/1787), establishing his reputation as a foremost thinker. His 'The Critique of Practical Reason' (1788) is central in his moral philosophy, whilst 'The Critique of Judgment' (1790), the third of his seminal triad, delves into aesthetics and teleology. It bridges the gap between the natural world and the moral world, providing a comprehensive framework for his aesthetic theory, notably his analyses of beauty and the sublime. Kant's critical style of philosophy was aimed at solving what he perceived as shortcomings of past doctrines, setting the stage for many philosophical debates that would follow. He passed away on February 12, 1804, in Königsberg, where he had lived all his life, but his writings continue to resonate and shape philosophical discussion today.