Kant and the Historical Turn: Philosophy as Critical Interpretation

Immanuel Kant's work changed the course of modern philosophy; Karl Ameriks examines how. He compares the philosophical system set out in Kant's Critiques with the work of the major philosophers before and after Kant. Individual essays provide case studies in support of Ameriks's thesis that late 18th-century reactions to Kant initiated an "historical turn," after which historical and systematic considerations became joined in a way that fundamentally distinguishes philosophy from science and art.

Karl Ameriks received his B.A. from Yale in 1969 and his Ph.D. from Yale in 1973. Since then he has taught at the University of Notre Dame, where he is McMahon-Hank Professor of Philosophy. In addition to three books on Kant, he has co-translated works by Kant and Husserl, and edited volumes concerning German philosophy and its contemporary interpretation.