Critical philosophy

Part of a series on
Immanuel Kant
People
George Berkeley René Descartes  · Fichte Friedrich Heinrich Jacobi G.W.F. Hegel · David Hume Arthur Schopenhauer Baruch Spinoza · African Spir Johannes Tetens
Major works
Critique of Pure Reason Prolegomena What Is Enlightenment? Groundwork of the Metaphysic of Morals Critique of Practical Reason Critique of Judgement Religion within the Bounds of Bare Reason Metaphysics of Morals
Kantianism and deontological ethics
Transcendental idealism Critical philosophy Sapere aude · Schema A priori ... a posteriori Analytic-synthetic distinction Noumenon · Categories Categorical imperative Hypothetical imperative "Kingdom of Ends" Political philosophy
Related topics
German idealism Schopenhauer's criticism Neo-Kantianism
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Attributed to Immanuel Kant, the critical philosophy movement sees the primary task of philosophy as criticism rather than justification of knowledge; criticism, for Kant, meant judging as to the possibilities of knowledge before advancing to knowledge itself (from the Greek kritike (techne), or "art of judgment"). The initial, and perhaps even sole task of philosophers, according to this view, is not to establish and demonstrate theories about reality, but rather to subject all theories—including those about philosophy itself—to critical review, and measure their validity by how well they withstand criticism.

"Critical philosophy" is also used as just another name for Kant's philosophy itself. Kant said that philosophy's proper enquiry is not about what is out there in reality, but rather about the character and foundations of experience itself. We must first judge how human reason works, and within what limits, so that we can afterwards correctly apply it to sense experience and determine whether it can be applied at all to metaphysical objects.

See also

• Critical theory