Kant

An expert and engaging new introduction to the philosopher…Argues that what made Kant revolutionary was his contention that to understand anything—science, justice, freedom, God—we first have to understand ourselves…As Willaschek demonstrates, Kant believed that his ideas would change humanity’s understanding of its place in the world as profoundly as the Copernican revolution had changed our sense of Earth’s place in the cosmos. – Adam Kirsch * New Yorker *
Refreshing…Shows that Kant’s moral philosophy, so often caricatured as being all head and no heart, is, like the man himself, in fact an admirable mixture of both. – Julian Baggini * Wall Street Journal *
Willaschek provides a vivid and accessible account of Kant’s ideas, life, and times…[he] convincingly shows that Kant was grappling at the highest philosophical level with a practical problem that is still relevant today: how to balance conflicting political and moral views within a society with the need for a shared reality and shared moral imperatives. – G. John Ikenberry * Foreign Affairs *
Willaschek deserves our gratitude…he presents Immanuel Kant’s most important ideas to readers who want to understand them, but who lack the time, or the masochistic impulse, to undertake the traditional rocky climb…Readers will justly delight in Willaschek’s box of Kantian chocolates for generations to come. – Marie Newhouse * Chronicle of Higher Education *
[Kant’s] philosophy is expounded with uncommon and admirable lucidity in [this book]…Willaschek provides an exposition that is as accessible as possible without oversimplifying. – Edward Feser * Claremont Review of Books *
Willaschek’s study of the philosopher Immanuel Kant does two things superbly. Firstly, it situates him within his age. Secondly, it exhaustively draws out aspects of his thought that are timely today. Above all, it is a book that makes this elusive genius, often caricatured as an archetypal academic, cloistered from the real world, into a flesh-and-blood creature…Willaschek has humanized a man often dismissed as an odd hermit and a plodding pedant and given new life to his contentious philosophy. – Aaron Kyereh-Mireku * Open Letters Review *
An excellent introduction to Kant and his ideas for those who have long been curious or those whose knowledge of Kant has dwindled to catchphrases. – Elizabeth Stice * Orange Blossom Ordinary *
Marcus Willaschek’s Kant: A Revolution in Thinking lays out, in crystalline prose with limpid precision, the full range of concerns and contributions made by the most important thinker of the modern world. I can think of few writers whose understanding of Kant and ability to explain him to the general public are so well matched. This is a truly valuable book. – William Egginton, author of The Rigor of Angels: Borges, Heisenberg, Kant, and the Ultimate Nature of Reality
Kant’s political and moral philosophy continues to be of profound interest to contemporary readers both in its own right and as the basis of modern moral and political thought as found in the writing of John Rawls, Christine Korsgaard, Tim Scanlon, and many others. Contrary to usual practice, Willaschek begins there and only then turns to Kant’s equally profound but more abstract revolution in metaphysics. I do not know of a better introduction to Kant for general readers in any language than this engaging new book. – Paul Guyer, author of Kant’s Impact on Moral Philosophy and coeditor and translator of The Cambridge Edition of the Works of Immanuel Kant
In this remarkable book, one of the most cogent philosophers of our time, Marcus Willaschek, provides an inspiring and illuminating guide to the thought of one of the most important philosophers of all time, Immanuel Kant. – Robert Brandom, author of A Spirit of Trust: A Reading of Hegel’s Phenomenology

Marcus Willaschek is Professor of Philosophy at Goethe University, Frankfurt, and a member of the Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Science, where he is responsible for the German standard edition of Kant’s works. The author of four books, he is also coeditor of the three-volume Kant-Lexikon.

This item is eligible for free returns within 30 days of delivery. See our returns policy for further details.