Part II, Paper 4 · European Philosophy from Kant

Kant: The metaphysical deduction

Does the metaphysical deduction by itself prove the apriority of the categories of the understanding?

Your discussion should clarify

• What is the function of the categories?
• What is their role in the generation of experiential knowledge?
• How does Kant know about them?
• What do they add in addition to the pure intuitions of space and time?

Essay of no more than 2,500 words.

Primary sources

• Kant, Immanuel: Critique of Pure Reason.Prologue AVII–AXXII; B-Introduction (B6–B29); A64/B89–A130/B169, with particular focus on the Metaphysical Deduction (A66/B91–A80/B106) and the table of the categories (A80/B106).

Secondary sources

• Allison, Henry E. 2015. Kant’s Transcendental Deduction: An Analytic-Historical Commentary. Oxford: Oxford University Press. DOI
• Kohl, Markus 2018. The Metaphysical Deduction and the Shadow of Humean Skepticism. Kant-Studien 109(3): 367–394. DOI
• Longuenesse, Béatrice 2005. Chapter 4: Kant on A Priori Concepts: The Metaphysical Deduction of the Categories, pp. 81–116 in Kant on the Human Standpoint. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. DOI

General introductions

• Gardner, Sebastian 1999. Routledge Philosophy Guidebook to Kant and the Critique of Pure Reason. London: Routledge.
• Guyer, Paul (ed.) 1992. The Cambridge Companion to Kant. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. DOI
• Guyer, Paul (ed.) 2010. The Cambridge Companion to Kant’s Critique of Pure Reason. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. DOI