General Information for Philosophy 338: Tutorial on Kant's Critique of Pure Reason
Course Topic: Kant's Critique of Pure Reason is one of the most important works in the history of philosophy. In this work, Kant articulates his "transcendental idealism" and seeks to show a way to resolve the problems with both British empiricism and Continental rationalism. Martin Heidegger has explained the importance of this text as follows: "Because of the Critique of Pure Reason all preceding philosophy . . . is put in a new light, and for the period that comes after, this Critique gives rise to a new philosophical problematic." As one of the most important philosophical texts of all time, the first Critique is a sweeping study of the nature of knowledge and reality that transformed study within metaphysics, epistemology, philosophy of science, phenomenology, philosophy of religion, and even ethics. Getting a clear understanding of this text will illuminate both the history of philosophy prior to Kant and the history of philosophy that developed in response to Kant's great work. At the same time, the study of the Critique of Pure Reason has proved a fruitful source of original philosophical thinking itself. In his own courses, Kant repeatedly said that he taught not philosophy, but how to philosophize. In studying Kant's most important work, we will focus not merely on learning what Kant's views were, but on learning how to think more deeply about the topics that Kant discusses. In that context, you will be encouraged to not only understand Kant's views, but critique them, take them further, or draw out unintended or unexplored implications of them. You are encouraged to develop your own philosophical interpretations not only of Kant himself, but of the world that Kant explains, the world of human "experience."
Tutorial Format: This course is a tutorial. The class is divided into pairs, and each pair will meet with me once a week. During each weekly meeting, one student will be responsible for a paper discussing issues related to the reading for the day. I have provided one or more questions for each week, and you should choose one of these questions to answer for your weekly papers. Under extraordinary circumstances, and with my consent, you may write on a topic not listed on the syllabus. You are expected to take the secondary sources into account where they are relevant. These papers should be 1500-2200 words. You must get your paper to your partner at least 24 hours prior to our meeting. Papers that are not given to your partner in a timely manner will negatively affect your final grade.
The second student will be responsible for responding to the paper. You should read the paper carefully and come with specific prepared comments and questions. These comments can include criticisms of the paper as well as extensions and further applications of the arguments of the paper. As with the paper itself, these comments should reference secondary literature where relevant.
The tutorial will begin with the first student reading her/his paper. Then the other student will respond, and we will have an intensive discussion of the material. At the end of the semester, each student will have the chance to expand one of their tutorial papers into a longer final essay (1800-3000 words). Evaluation will be based on written work (60%), prepared comments (20%), and oral participation in the tutorial (20%).
(I will comment on papers orally, as part of the tutorial itself. At your request, I will prepare written comments on your first paper and one other paper during the semester. You must request these comments at the time of our tutorial meeting.)

Other General Info:

Secondary Sources: Throughout the course of the semester, our reading of Kant will be enriched by reading selected secondary sources. For each question on your weekly assignment, there will be a list of secondary sources. These sources are all available on reserve in the library. Except when otherwise indicated, you are to read all of the sources listed on the syllabus.
The sources listed on the syllabus are only a very small fraction of the available sources on each topic, and the topics on the syllabus cover only a small fraction of the topics in the study of Kant's first Critique. Thus you are encouraged to look at other high-quality secondary sources in writing your papers. (See here for more on how to find high-quality secondary sources.) Each time you go beyond the listed secondary sources and include new secondary sources in your tutorial paper or comments (in significant ways), you will get a "bonus secondary point." In order to get a solid A in the course, you must have at least three bonus secondary points. (To get an A, that is, your papers must warrant an A grade on their own, and you must have used outside secondary sources at least three times. For those whose papers are not of sufficient quality to merit a solid A grade, these points will contribute to your final grade in a "balance-tipping" way; e.g., if you are on the border between a B+ and an A-, they can tip you to an A-.)

Thursday Lunches: I have reserved my Thursday lunches for meeting informally with students. If you would like to meet (individually or as a group) for lunch on Thursday, just send me an email by Thursday morning at 11, or come by my office (Olin 151) on Thursday before 11:50.

Book: Immanuel Kant, Critique of Pure Reason, Translated and edited by Paul Guyer and Allen Wood, Cambridge University Press: 1998, ISBN: 0-521-65729-6.

Optional Books: As you will see in the detailed syllabi for each question and by the books listed on reserve, there are dozens of books that I could have listed as optional books. Most secondary sources are placed on reserve, and you will use them in the library. In the context of using those sources, however, you will be getting bits and pieces of a variety of different approaches to the first Critique. The books listed here all provide a single coherent reading of nearly the entire first Critique. Each is a classic representative of its kind of Kant scholarship, and the three represent very different kinds of Kant scholarship. You are strongly encouraged to buy at least one and read it alongside the primary source material and the secondary material for your particular assignments. For each week, I have listed the relevant page numbers in each of these three secondary sources.
- Henry Allison, Kant's Transcendental Idealism, Yale University Press: 2004.
- Martin Heidegger, Kant and the Problem of Metaphysics, Indiana University Press, 1997 (originally
- P.F. Strawson, The Bounds of Sense. Routeledge, 1966.