Religion Within the Boundary of Pure Reason. Translated out of the Original German by W.H. Semple.
Kant, Immanuel.
Edinburgh: Thomas Clark, 1838. First complete edition in English of Kant’s Die Religion innerhalb der Grenzen der Blossen Vernunft, originally published in German in 1793. A very good copy, entirely uncut and unopened. Modern boards with paper spine label. Octavo. x, 275 pp. (Item ID: 14754)
$600.00
Kant’s Religion Within the Boundary of Pure Reason “is in effect a commentary on and a reinterpretation of Christian doctrine and practice…Kant took a particular interest in Christianity, which he saw as at least approximating true religion though corrupted by the presence of extraneous elements derived from Judaism…Kant sets aside the historical elements in Christianity as having no importance in themselves: Whatever is true in the religion must be derivable from moral reason. To think of the uttering of religious formulas or the performance of formal services to God as having a value of their own is to fall into the grossest superstition” (Encyclopedia of Philosophy).
These views naturally struck the Prussian authorities as subversive, and Kant was forced to refrain from further pronouncements on religion.
