"PARAMOUNT IN THE CRITICAL METHOD OF MODERN PHILOSOPHY": FIRST EDITION IN ENGLISH OF KANT'S CRITIQUE OF PURE REASON, 1838

KANT, Immanuel. Critick of Pure Reason. Translated from the Original of Immanuel Kant. London: William Pickering, 1838. Octavo, original green cloth, printed paper spine label; housed in a custom half morocco clamshell box. $11,500.

First edition in English of Kant's major work, representing the "full maturity" of his philosophical thought, in original cloth.

The first of his three Critiques, Kant's Critick of Pure Reason (first published in German in 1781), represents the "full maturity" of his philosophical thought. It treats the problem of "how it is possible for the individual thinking subject to connect together the parts of his experience in the form we call cognition… The influence of Kant is paramount in the critical method of modern philosophy. No other thinker has been able to hold with such firmness the balance between speculative and empirical ideas. His penetrating analysis of the elements involved in synthesis, and the subjective process by which these elements are realized in the individual consciousness, demonstrated the operation of 'pure reason'; and the simplicity and cogency of his arguments achieved immediate fame" (PMM 226). Eight leaves (pages 337-52) bound out of order: text is complete. Harris, 85. See Norman 1197; Palmquist Kt1. With the owner signature dated 1841 of American lichenologist Edward Tuckerman on the half title, along with extensive notes to the front and rear leaves and occasional annotations throughout. Tuckerman spent much of his career as a botanist at Amherst College, but also maintained a wide array of other interests, in particular philosophy. In 1841, he embarked on an extended tour of Europe, spending the winter studying botany, philosophy and history in Germany. His annotations reflect his wide reading among other German idealists during this time, including extensive extracts from Fichte, Schelling, and Kant's other Critiques.

Interior mildly embrowned, expert paper repair to page x, inner hinges expertly repaired; original cloth with mild discoloration, spine a bit worn and rubbed, including faint waterstaining to paper label and rubbing affecting a few letters of title. A very good copy.