"THAT MOST BEAUTIFUL AND COMPREHENSIBLE OF ALL KANT'S IMPORTANT WRITINGS, WHICH IS FAR TOO LITTLE READ" (SCHOPENHAUER): 1783 FIRST EDITION OF KANT'S PROLEGOMENA

KANT, Immanuel. Prologomena zu einer jeden künftigen Metaphysik, die als Wissenschaft wird auftreten können. Riga: Johann Friedrich Hartknoch, 1783. Octavo, contemporary marbled boards recently respined in calf. $4500.

First edition, first issue of Kant's important clarification and distillation of the arguments first put forth two years earlier in his groundbreaking Critique of Pure Reason.

The first of his three groundbreaking Critiques, Kant's Critick der reinen Vernunft 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" (PMM 226). But Kant's influence was not immediate following the publication of the Critique of Pure Reason: "the appearance of the Critique was eagerly awaited by Kant's friends and philosophical colleagues, but when it at last came out in 1781 the general reaction was more bewilderment than admiration. Kant tried to remove misunderstandings by restating the main argument in the Prolegomena to Every Future Metaphysics of 1783" (Encyclopedia of Philosophy 4:305), a shorter and more accessible work that is still read today as a sort of introduction to Kant's philosophy.

First issue, with all first issue points, including the misprint "subjectiv" (rather than "objectiv") on line 8 of page 78, only found in the first issue. Text in German, in black letter. Warda 75. Owner signature on title page.

Scattered foxing to text, faint marginal dampstaining to a few leaves at the front of the text, minor expert restoration to contemporary marbled boards. An extremely good copy.