Paul Guyer on Immanuel Kant
"But it leaves open what the true nature of things, including ourselves and our will, might be."
The Door in the Stacks
Guyer's Kant runs on one thesis: freedom is the end, reason the means. Wessels on finding Guyer in a library basement, and the door he opens into Kant.
Read the introduction →- 1 The Forty-Five-Cent Kant Episode 1 • 12 min • Members
- 2 Dare to Know Episode 2 • 13 min • Members
- 3 The Starry Heavens and the Great Gulf Episode 3 • 13 min • Members
- 4 What Critique Actually Means Episode 4 • 16 min • Members
- 5 The Impossible Kind of Knowledge Episode 5 • 16 min • Members
- 6 Space and Time Episode 6 • 14 min • Members
- 7 The Weakest Part of the Book Episode 7 • 14 min • Members
- 8 Where the Categories Come From Episode 8 • 14 min • Members
- 9 The Schema, and the Answer to Hume Episode 9 • 16 min • Members
- 10 The Logic of Illusion Episode 10 • 14 min • Members
- 11 The Good Will Episode 11 • 14 min • Members
- 12 The Test Episode 12 • 13 min • Members
- 13 The Inner Worth of the World Episode 13 • 17 min • Members
- 14 The Fly in the Ointment Episode 14 • 10 min • Members
- 15 Respect Episode 15 • 13 min • Members
- 16 The Highest Good Episode 16 • 15 min • Members
- 17 What May I Hope Episode 17 • 15 min • Members
- 18 Radical Evil Episode 18 • 15 min • Members
- 19 Lucid, and Reversible Episode 19 • 14 min • Members
- 20 Right and Virtue Episode 20 • 15 min • Members
- 21 The Gift Episode 21 • 16 min • Members
- 22 No One Can Judge for You Episode 22 • 15 min • Members
- 23 The Sublime Episode 23 • 11 min • Members
- 24 Genius Episode 24 • 16 min • Members
- 25 What Nature Is For Episode 25 • 13 min • Members
- 26 The Crooked Timber Episode 26 • 14 min • Members
- 27 Perpetual Peace Episode 27 • 12 min • Members
In Conversation With – Where this book meets another
Nature Gives the Rule
John Kaag's Thoreau lifts Kant's definition of genius and gives it to a Concord woodchopper. Paul Guyer's Kant has one condition Thoreau refuses: be understood.
Go deeper →Paid In
Paul Guyer's Kant lets you hire a man if you pay him fairly. Garth Greenwell's Adam Verver pays the Prince perfectly and still does him a profound wrong.
Go deeper →The Will That Gives the Law
Kant and Nietzsche agree the human will gives itself the law — and split on whether that law binds everyone or only its maker.
Go deeper →The Questions these books keep starting →
What Was Kant's Copernican Revolution?
Kant's Copernican revolution: objects conform to the mind, which supplies space and time — securing science on a foundation Guyer himself doubts.
Go deeper →What Is Kant's Categorical Imperative?
Kant's categorical imperative tests the policy behind your act: can you will it as universal law? Guyer shows where Kant's own arguments fall short.
Go deeper →Why Is Freedom the Keystone of Kant's Philosophy?
Guyer reads Kant's three Critiques as one arch with freedom as its keystone: a theory of knowledge built to make room for a will nature cannot explain.
Go deeper →- Was Charlotte Lucas Right to Marry Mr. Collins? Sadie Stein on Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice
- What Does the A on Hester's Chest Actually Mean? Megan Marshall on Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter
- Was Thoreau Selfish? The Question of Self-Reliance John Kaag on Henry David Thoreau's Walden
- What Is Kant's Categorical Imperative? Paul Guyer on Immanuel Kant