A Commentary to Kant's 'Critique of Pure Reason'

"A Commentary to Kant's 'Critique of Pure Reason'" by Norman Kemp Smith is a philosophical commentary written in the early 20th century. This scholarly work aims to elucidate the complexities of Immanuel Kant's seminal text, the "Critique of Pure Reason," which has been a pivotal work in modern philosophy. The commentary discusses the intricate problems presented by Kant, including the nature of a priori knowledge and the synthesis of thought, highlighting the challenges posed by Kant's arguments. The opening of the commentary serves as a preface, where the author acknowledges the obscurity and difficulty inherent in Kant's original text. It outlines the dual focus of the commentary: both an exposition of Kant’s ideas and a critical analysis of them. Kemp Smith explains that Kant's writing, composed over several years, reflects a composite nature with potential inconsistencies that arise from his method of combining earlier manuscripts. The author emphasizes that understanding Kant's work requires an awareness of these complexities and intends to facilitate a clearer grasp of the "Critique" by synthesizing different layers of Kant’s thought into a systematic discussion of its central themes. (This is an automatically generated summary.)

Norman Duncan Kemp Smith, FBA, FRSE was a Scottish philosopher who was Professor of Psychology (1906–1914) and Philosophy (1914–1919) at Princeton University and was Professor of Logic and Metaphysics at the University of Edinburgh (1919–1945).