Innovation and Tradition

Abstract

Even a radical philosophical intervention like Kant’s cannot of course be regarded as a total revolution. The fact that he takes a citation from one of his predecessors as a motto for the first Critique itself indicates that his new conception of philosophical ‘science’ is not intended merely to replace or transform everything that has previously been thought or achieved in this field. The fundamental themes of Kant’s thought can conveniently be presented in a series of pairs which show how he supplemented traditional themes of philosophy (indicated under odd numbers) with distinctive new themes of his own (indicated under even numbers).