Anthony Kenny
Publisher SPCK £8.99, 2019
Format pbk
ISBN 9780281076543
Those of us who have only a passing knowledge of Kant and who would like a reminder of his importance will welcome this book. Not too long and involved as to be daunting and yet not the superficial description of an encyclopaedia entry. It is split into two parts, the first describing Kant’s work in chronological order and the second, The Legacy, discussing how well his thoughts have stood up in the light of scholarship after his death. In that first part the reader is taken through those central ideas of which she may have some nodding acquaintance: analytic a priori and synthetic a posteriori knowledge and the problematic key idea of synthetic a priori propositions, awareness of time and space as principles of a priori knowledge, the elusiveness of the the-thing-in-itself, ontological and cosmological proofs of God, categorical imperatives and the Kantian concept of duty. All of these are explained briefly by Kenny in short expositional sentences which, although they may not entirely dispel the puzzlement of some readers, including this reviewer, nonetheless do make things clearer. In some cases, for example, in the description of Kant’s writing on politics and the possibility of perpetual peace, readers may encounter a side of the philosopher that is less familiar to them. Part 2 of the book is perhaps less helpful, and one wonders whether the 30 or so pages given over to it might not have been better spent going over the essential Kantian ideas with a few more examples. The pages devoted to 20th century philosopher critics of Kant, such as Quine and Frege, although of interest, are in danger of leaving the reader bemused if not confused by the introduction of revolutionary ideas, such as Frege’s new mathematical logic, before she has had time to digest what precisely Kant himself was saying. On the other hand those final two short chapters in the second part where Kenny is offering his own thoughts on the strengths and weaknesses of Kant’s philosophy in relation to freedom and morality and religion and politics are illuminating, although here too one wonders whether they could not have been better incorporated into the earlier chapters where Kant’s writing on those subjects was first explained. But whether they take it either as a reminder of Kant’s great stature in the history of philosophy or as a basic introduction to his philosophy, readers will enjoy Kenny’s book.
C W WATSON
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