Kant’s Critique of Pure Reason [2500]

General Information

• Credits: 6 ECTS
• Prerequisites: baccalaureate level or equivalent; proficiency in English
• Learning format: asynchronous distance learning – 100% e-learning
• Language of instruction: English
• Course access: available at any time of year
• Disability liaison officer: Cécile Boucherle

Course Overview

This course offers a comprehensive introduction to Immanuel Kant’s Critique of Pure Reason, highlighting its revolutionary impact on the history of philosophy. It traces the origins of Kant’s critical philosophy from his 1770 Inaugural Dissertation and examines the key concepts of the Transcendental Aesthetic and Transcendental Analytic. Particular attention is given to Kant’s "Copernican Revolution" and its implications for the theory of knowledge. The course also explores Kant’s analysis of the faculties of cognition—sensibility, understanding, and reason—and situates his thought within its intellectual context, including the influence of Leibniz, Wolff, and David Hume. 

Learning Outcomes

This course enables you to:

• understand the central philosophical problems addressed by Kant in the Critique of Pure Reason, with particular emphasis on the Transcendental Aesthetic and the Transcendental Analytic;
• explain and critically evaluate Kant’s Copernican Revolution and its significance for his theory of knowledge; and
• analyze Kant’s primary texts with confidence, identifying and assessing the structure and key arguments of his critical philosophy.

Course Competencies

This course is linked to the following competency:

• Analyse the systems of modern philosophy, from rationalism to Kantian criticism.

Course Outline

Section 1: Kant’s Intellectual Milieu

Section 2: The Project of the Critique of Pure Reason: A Copernican Revolution

Section 3: Title, Structure, Content, and Key Basic Distinctions in Kant’s Terminology of the First Critique

Section 4: The Standard Picture of Kant’s Transcendental, Critical, and Idealistic Philosophy

Section 5: Transcendental Aesthetic: On Space and Time

Section 6: Idealism of Space and Time: Kant’s Revolutionary Claim

Section 7: Transcendental Logic: Analytic of Concepts

Section 8: Transcendental Deduction of the Categories: A Version of the Critique of Pure Reason (A-Deduction)

Section 9: The Deduction of the Pure Concepts of Understanding in the Second Edition (B-Deduction)

Section 10: Analytic of Principles: The Schematism Chapter

Section 11: Analytic of Principles: Analogies of Experience

Section 12: Kant’s Copernican Analogy and the Critique of Metaphysics (Transcendental Dialectic)

Assessment Methods 

Course assessment is based on:

• tracking and completion of the course and of all learning activities. These activities, designed as essential practice and learning exercises, may be completed multiple times and are not factored into the final grade; and
• the final assessment quiz, which constitutes the graded evaluation.

Learning Format

The course is taught entirely online via the MyDomuni platform, accessible 24/7.
Learning resources include:

• written course materials;
• supplementary documents and, depending on the content, video resources;
• interactive learning activities (quizzes, exercises); and
• a discussion forum with the course instructor and fellow participants.

Prerequisites

This course is open to anyone with a general level of education equivalent to the baccalaureate, or with personal or academic experience related to the topics covered.

A good command of written English is recommended to facilitate understanding of the content and participation in the activities offered. 

Accessibility

The course is accessible at any time, from any internet-connected device, via the MyDomuni platform.
For students with disabilities, specific support can be arranged upon request to ensure equitable access to course content and activities.

Disability liaison officer: cecile.boucherle@domuni.eu.

Selective Bibliography

• Immanuel Kant, Critique of Pure Reason, ed. and trans. Paul Guyer and Allen W. Wood, The Cambridge Edition of the Works of
• Immanuel Kant, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2009.
• Immanuel Kant, « Prolegomena to Any Future Metaphysics That Will Be Able to Come Forward as Science » (1783), in Henry E.
• Allison and Peter Heath (eds.), Theoretical Philosophy after 1781, trans. Gary C. Hatfield, The Cambridge Edition of the Works of Immanuel Kant, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2002.
• Brent Adkins, « The Satisfaction of Reason: The Mathematical/Dynamical Distinction in the Critique of Pure Reason », Kantian Review, 3, 1999, pp. 64-80.
• Henry E. Allison, Kant's Transcendental Idealism, rev. and enl. ed., New Haven, Yale University Press, 2004.
• Ferdinand Alquié, La Critique kantienne de la métaphysique, Paris, Presses Universitaires de France, 1968.