A companion or guide to Kant's Critique of Pure Reason

Question

Which companion, or guide, would you recommend to someone trying to read and understand the original work, The Critique of Pure Reason? Why?

I'm inclined towards these two, The Cambridge Companion to Kant's Critique of Pure Reason and A Kant Dictionary, after reading through all the comments there.

[Where I stand, presently]

have read most of Socratic dialogues, and enjoyed those quite a lot
have a reasonable understanding of Hume and Kierkegaard
able to read Thus Spoke Zarathustra, with adequate understanding -- using online help here and there
completed some online courses, Introduction to Mathematical Philosophy, and Introduction to Philosophy
completed an online course, Introduction to Logic -- could't retain all of those formal structure of expressions; but still able to understand by looking back to those again and again
have, partially, read Aristotle's Analytics; wasn't having a very tough time while reading that, but still remember, didn't find that a light read too

Without any hints to where you stand and what you already read it will be hard to find at least a semi-objective answer. — Philip Klöcking, Aug 09 '16 at 13:27
Philosophers should be more open and helpful to the people, who are interested in philosophy, in order to make this world a better place. Don't you think? — Adeel Ansari, Aug 11 '16 at 03:31
@phillip Klocking: hints have been provided. I've voted to reopen. — Mozibur Ullah, Aug 11 '16 at 07:31
This introduction to pure reason by Sebastian Gardner is good: https://books.google.co.il/books?id=9UT87KTbjQ0C&dq=0-203-015487&source=gbs_navlinks_s — nir, Aug 12 '16 at 09:11
Jill Vance Buroker's Kant's Critique of Pure Reason: An Introduction gets positive review here and here — Hypnosifl, May 20 '20 at 04:25
Deleuze , Kant's Critical Philosophy . Concise, efficient and extremely lucid. — , May 20 '20 at 10:01
Try- Yirmayahu Yovel's 'Kant's Philosophical Revolution- A Short Guide to the Critique of Pure Reason'. CMS — , May 20 '20 at 20:40

score 4 · Accepted Answer · edited Aug 12 '16 at 04:20

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Norman Kemp Smith's Commentary to Kant's Critique of Pure Reason is absolutely brilliant. Find this commentary on Project Gutenberg; and here is the PDF version.

edited Aug 12 '16 at 04:20

Adeel Ansari

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answered Aug 09 '16 at 11:08

Luke Scicluna

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I would rather recommend Cambridge's because it is based on a newer, more truthful translation and includes more contemporary interpretations. There's happened quite much in research on Kant wihin the last 40 years, you know. Routledge would be another one. Allison has written very insightful on parts of the book. And so on. – Philip Klöcking Aug 09 '16 at 13:38
That is a fair enough observation, but as a first commentary I found Kemp Smith's to be unparallelled in clarity. It is still my go-to today, even though I have various other (newer) ones. – Luke Scicluna Aug 09 '16 at 13:54
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... and thanks a lot for introducing Wordery. – Adeel Ansari Aug 12 '16 at 06:42

score 1 · Answer 2 · answered Jan 14 '17 at 23:06

I recommend you write to Professor John R. Searle of UC Berkeley and request his summary of Kant's Critique of Pure Reason.

There are two distinctions in this Preface that are fundamental for everything that follows. One is the distinction between things in themselves and appearances and the second is the distinction between those parts of the contents of the mind that he calls "sensible intuitions" by which he means perception, and those parts which he calls "concepts" by which he means the apparatus necessary for thinking. The distinction in short, is between perceptual intuition and understanding. There is also a passage which is ominous and decisive. It is on page 22 and there he refers to "objects, or what is the same thing,... the experience in which alone, as given objects, they can be known". That is to say, that like Hume, he equates objects and experience. [That is the fundamental disaster from which everything follows.]

Anyone know how to get in tough with John Searle to ask for his summary of the Critique of Pure Reason? The email addresses I found didn't work. — Tom Ho, May 20 '20 at 03:21
@TomHo here ya go: https://www.icloud.com/iclouddrive/00cyEVYrU6aJGwA0opVlx3uEg#Searle-Summary-CPR-Kant — MmmHmm, Oct 25 '22 at 18:41

Adeel Ansari · Answer 3 · 2017-02-06T09:42:25.737

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Complementary to those books, I found a series of lecture on Kant's CPR on YouTube by Robert Paul Wolff, and another series of lecture by Dan Robinson. Both are very helpful, indeed.

edited Feb 06 '17 at 09:42

answered Dec 20 '16 at 10:13

Adeel Ansari

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score -1 · Answer 4 · edited Jan 14 '17 at 23:12

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Peter Strawson, a wise and lucid writer, devoted much of his distinguished career to Kant, including "The Bounds of Sense: An Essay on Kant's Critique of Pure Reason"

edited Jan 14 '17 at 23:12

MmmHmm

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answered Dec 20 '16 at 11:54

Anderson Brown

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This does not really answer the question for a companion or guide, nor does it explain why you would recommend this. – Dec 20 '16 at 18:31
And the link is broken. – RodolfoAP Mar 18 '21 at 15:50

A companion or guide to Kant's Critique of Pure Reason

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