Philosophy : Kant A Very Short Introduction Very Short Introductions
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- ISBN13: 9780192801999
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 The Best Explanation of Kant's Thought I've Run Across
I love almost everything about the "Very Short Introduction" series.
I find them easy to read ("easy" is relative with Philosophy books) and fun...The writing tends to be witty.
I love the colors of the books. I love sitting out on an ocean beach reading a book with a beautiful cover.
With some of my beach ensembles the books help me to be quite a turner of heads.
The books are the most portable books I've encountered which makes for a perfect blend of utilitarian function and beauty.
The Kant introduction has helped me understand more about Kant's Critique of Pure Reasoning more than anything else I've read and I've read several accounts of the work.
I look at understanding Kant's work the way I look at driving up a steep hill in the snow....One has to make several runs up the hill in order to clear enough snow to be able to get to the top. Each run gets one a bit closer to the top.
I now understand far more about Kant's philosophy than I ever thought I would thanks to the book. Roger Scruton has an incredible ability to unpack Kant's ideas.
A quick FYI
The book is good and Roger Scruton always has a free flowing beautiful style of writing. That said - almost the same content by the same author - plus three other philosophers, are in this book -
German Philosophers: Kant, Hegel, Schopenhauer, Nietzsche
and that is a better buy and would give a far better understanding of a bigger picture too.
hard to make Kant any easier
Immanuel Kant is arguably one of the most influential, and yet most difficult to read, philosophers of all time. Roger Scruton does as good a job as it is reasonable to expect in this short introduction to Kant's work. The reader is given a bit of background to Kant's philosophy, and then is introduced to the transcendental deduction, the logic of illusion, the categorical imperative, as well as Kant's ideas on aesthetic and law. The booklet concludes with a few comments on the meaning and impact of Kant's "transcendental" philosophy. I must say that the section that gripped (yes, that is the right word!) me the most is chapter 7, "Enlightenment and Law," where Scruton comments on the role Kant had in developing modern concepts such as human rights and even the idea of a league of nations. Kant was an anti-utopian, in the sense that he did not believe that an ideal political system could actually be realized in practice, and indeed despised the violence of the then recent French revolution. (He would certainly not have approved of Bush's war to bring democracy to other countries.) But he was a man of the Enlightenment in the sense that he thought we still ought to strive toward such ideals, to keep them in mind as a guide to our behavior and our discussions about what is right and just. It makes for much food for thought even in modern times.
A very accessible introduction to Kant
Kant is one of those modern philosophers whose presence looms large over much of what has been achieved over the past couple of centuries in modern philosophy, and yet he is not very likely to be read in most introductory philosophy classes. Part of the difficulty lies with Kant's highly technical and oftentimes convoluted use of language, which gave even his contemporaries who were native German speakers some difficulties. The philosophers and scholars have since had a chance to debate, oftentimes vehemently, the "true" meaning of Kant's works and it is unlikely that those debates will end any time soon. With such formidable baggage, it would be very difficult for an absolute novice in philosophy to just plunge into Kant's work and start reading it on its own. A good first exposition by an expert is invaluable and this thin volume serves exactly such purpose. It does a remarkable job of delineating the scope of Kant's thought and bringing this philosopher to life for the new generation of readers.
Only 4 stars because any short introduction doesn't give Kant his due
It's a pretty good introduction, I'd recommend reading several introductions to Kant before diving in (he's pretty dense). I think Goethe said that reading Kant was like walking into a well-lit room, I hardly think he was talking about Kant's dry, scholastic writing style. The clarity of his thought, however, is pretty intense. I do recommend this book, merely because jumping straight into Kant probably isn't going to fare well. When, and if, you do choose to read Kant, take a look at Jonathan Bennett's website (a philosopher and Kant scholar), I think he translates Kant into more readable English. Early Modern Texts or something. I agree with some of the other commentators, that this introduction is kinda hard for a first time look into Kant. A history of philosophy book might be your best bet to read first. It is pretty good for such a short introduction though. Take your time and don't do it in a day. Digest it. Good luck all.
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