*SOLD*
 
The Critick of Pure Reason
Immanuel Kant, translated by Francis Haywood
London, 1838
 
The first edition in English of a tectonic work.
 
8vo. xxxvi, 655, [1], [1] pp. No tipped-in ads as seen in some copies - priority unknown. General modest wear to the covers, spine label worn though largely legible, top corner of front free endpaper clipped. Pages lightly toned, otherwise quite clean. Old owner’s name penciled on half-title. Rubbed gift label on front pastedown from Mrs. Alexander Van Rensselaer(previously Sarah Drexel Fell, 1860–1929). Of an affluent Philadelphia family, her father founded Drexel University. A stamped number at the bottom of the first page of text, this copy perhaps gifted to Drexel as much of her wealth went to the institution.
 
Overall, just about Near Fine. A nice, sound copy of a book that’s quite rare in original cloth, and even rarer in this condition as its poor construction leaves most surviving copies mangled.
 
‘The Critique of Pure Reason is one of the most important works in the history of philosophy. In this work, Kant articulates his “transcendental idealism” and seeks to show a way to resolve the problems with both British empiricism and Continental rationalism. Martin Heidegger has explained the importance of this text as follows: “Because of the Critique of Pure Reason all preceding philosophy…is put in a new light, and for the period that comes after, this Critique gives rise to a new philosophical problematic.” As one of the most important philosophical texts of all time, the first Critique is a sweeping study of the nature of knowledge and reality that transformed study within metaphysics, epistemology, philosophy of science, phenomenology, philosophy of religion, and even ethics.’
 
The genesis of this translation involved the important and irascible philosopher, Arthur Schopenhauer.
 
In December 1829, after reading an anonymous article in the British magazine Foreign Review and Continental Miscellany calling for an English translation of Kant, Schopenhauer wrote to the author via the publishers suggesting himself for the task. He sought the author’s help in finding a publisher, and enclosed a sample translation of Kant’s Prolegomena to evidence his English prowess. A swift response arrived from the author, Liverpudlian merchant and translator Francis Haywood, proposing a collaborative effort with split profits. This was unsatisfactory to Schopenhauer, and he appealed directly to the publishers for help, pointing out that “a century may pass ere there shall again meet in the same head so much Kantian philosophy with so much English as happen to dwell together in mine.”
 
Ultimately, this attempt would fall apart and the Critique wouldn’t be published until this translation in 1838 - which would later be seen as a mangled effort that didn’t accurately convey Kant’s ideas, thus vindicating Schopenhauer. Would that he had been the one to execute it…
 
A must have rarity for most any rare book collection, let alone any purporting a connection to philosophy.
 
Ref:
 
Kant’s Critique of Pure Reason, Professor Patrick Frierson
Arthur Schopenhauer's English Schooling, Patrick Bridgwater
Arthur Schopenhauer, Peter Lewis