Critical philosophy

Part of a series on
Immanuel Kant
Major works Critique of Pure Reason Prolegomena to​ Any Future Metaphysics "Answering the​ Question: What Is Enlightenment?" Groundwork of the Metaphysic of Morals Critique of Practical Reason Critique of Judgment Religion within the Bounds of Bare Reason Perpetual Peace The Metaphysics of Morals "On a Supposed Right to Tell Lies from​ Benevolent Motives" Opus Postumum
Kantianism • Kantian ethics Transcendental idealism Critical philosophy Sapere aude Thing-in-itself Schema A priori and a posteriori Analytic–synthetic distinction Noumenon Category Categorical imperative Hypothetical imperative "Kingdom of Ends" Political philosophy Teleology
People J. G. Fichte G. W. F. Hegel David Hume F. H. Jacobi Arthur Schopenhauer Baruch Spinoza
Related topics German idealism Neo-Kantianism
Category • Philosophy portal

Critical philosophy (German: kritische Philosophie) is a movement inaugurated by Immanuel Kant (1724–1804). It is dedicated to the self-examination of reason with the aim of exposing its inherent limitations, that is, to defining the possibilities of knowledge as a prerequisite to advancing to knowledge itself. According to Kant, only after such self-criticism does it become possible to develop metaphysics in a non-dogmatic way.^[1]

The three critical texts of the Kantian corpus are the Critique of Pure Reason, Critique of Practical Reason and Critique of Judgement, published between 1781 and 1790 and primarily concerned, respectively, with metaphysics, morality, and teleology.

Contemporaries of Kant such as Johann Georg Hamann and Johann Gottfried Herder rejected the notion of "pure" reason upon which this project depends. They claim that reason depends upon language, which always introduces historical contingencies.^[2]