Kant’s Transcendental Deduction

The argument of the Transcendental Deduction of the Categories in the Critique of Pure Reason is the deepest and most far-reaching in philosophy. In his new book, Robert Howell interprets main themes of the Deduction using ideas from contemporary philosophy and intensional logic, thereby providing a keener grasp of Kant's many subtleties than has hitherto been available. No other work pursues Kant's argument through every twist and turn with the careful, logically detailed attention maintained here. Surprising new accounts of apperception, the concept of an object, the logical functions of thought, the role of the Metaphysical Deduction, and Kant's relations to his Aristotelian-Cartesian background are developed. Howell makes a precise contribution to the discussion of most of the disputed issues in the history of Deduction interpretation. Controversial in its conclusions, this book demands the attention of all who take seriously the task of understanding Kant's work and evaluating it dispassionately. – Table of contents: Displayed Sentences Referred to Frequently. Preface. One: Kant's Picture of Knowledge. Two: Intuitions and Their Objects. Three: Intuition, the Manifold of Intuition, and Its Synthesis. Four: The Transcendental Deduction: Its Structure, Goals, and Opening Claims. Five: Combination and Intensionality: B-Deduction §15. Six: Apperception: B-Deduction §16. Seven: Transcendental Unity of Apperception and Its Necessity. Eight: The Union of the Manifold of Intuition in the Concept of an Object: B-Deduction §17. Nine: Objective Unity of Apperception and the Logical Forms of Judgment: B-Deduction §18 and §19. Ten: Category Application to the Object of Intuition: B-Deduction §20. – Notes. Bibliography. Index.