Kant's Transcendental Proof of Realism

Kenneth Westphal is Professorial Fellow in Philosophy at the University of East Anglia. His publications include Hegel's Epistemological Realism (1989) and Hegel's Epistemology: A Philosophical Introduction to the Phenomenology of the Spirit (2003) and he has also published widely on Kant's practical philosophy.

• Introduction; 1. Kant's methods: transcendental and epistemic reflection; 2. The metaphysics of Kant's transcendental idealism; 3. Transcendental affinity; 4. The gap in Kant's Critique of Pure Reason; 5. Kant's dynamic misconstructions; 6. Kant's metaphysical proof of the law of inertia; 7. Three Kantian insights; Appendix. Summary of Kant's Transcendental Proof of the Legitimacy of Causal Judgments.

'This is an important contribution to the contemporary literature on Kant's theoretical philosophy. The book is distinguished by a novel main claim, an impressive grip on the relevant secondary literature (both past and present), a close examination of some typically neglected (but important) passages in the Critique of Pure Reason, and a sustained, rigorous, and lucid argument. No one, so far as I know, has argued for Kant's 'realism' in such a thorough way. Given both the novelty of the claim and the care with which it is supported, all future interpreters of Kant will have to take Westphal into account.' Gordon Brittain, Montana State University