The fundamental idea of Kant's “critical philosophy” especially in his three Critiques: the Critique of Pure Reason (1781, 1787), the Critique of Practical Reason (1788), and the Critique of the Power of Judgment (1790) — is human autonomy. The Critique of Pure Reason inquires into the faculty of experiential knowledge; it grounds what for Kant is the sole material knowledge we can have, the science of nature. The Critique of Pure Reason The Critique of Pure Reason in 1787. Kant’s project in the Critique of Pure Reason. The main topic of the Critique of Pure Reason is the possibility of metaphysics, understood in a specific way. 2. Critique of Pure Reason, the book that would alter the course of western philosophy, was written by a man already far into his career. The Critique of Judgment (Kritik der Urteilskraft, the third Critique) applied the Kantian 1790 system to aesthetics and teleology. Summary of the Critique of Pure Reason: The Critique of Pure Reason, published by Immanuel Kant in 1781, is one of the most complex structures and the most significant of modern philosophy, bringing a revolution at least as great as that of Descartes and his Discourse on Method. The Categorical Imperative (NOTE: ... Kant in his Critique of Practical Reason wanted to find a basis for ethics that would be based on reason and not on a faith in a god or in some cold calculation of utility that might permit people to be used for the benefit of the majority. It is in need of explanation, first, how the several major distinctions and claims Kant makes -- each of which can be, and has been, the subject of whole articles of commentary in its own right -- fit together into a unified whole. something popular essays on … The Critique of Practical Reason, 1788 and the Metaphysics of Morals of 1797. Like all of Kant's writings, The Foundations of the Metaphysics of Morals is in serious need of explanation. A Critique of the Kantian Ethics by Michael Huemer.