Immanuel Kant (1724–1804) is the central figure in modern philosophy. He synthesized early modern rationalism and empiricism, set the terms for much of nineteenth and twentieth century philosophy, and continues to exercise a significant influence today in metaphysics, epistemology, ethics, political philosophy, aesthetics, and other fields. The fundamental idea of Kant's “critical philosophy” — especially in his three Critiques: the Critique of Pure Reason (1781, 1787), the Critique of Practical Reason (1788), and the Critique of the Power of Judgment (1790) — is human autonomy. He argues that the human understanding is the source of the general laws of nature that structure all our experience; and that human reason gives itself the moral law, which is our basis for belief in God, freedom, and immortality. Therefore, scientific knowledge, morality, and religious belief are mutually consistent and secure because they all rest on the same foundation of human autonomy, which is also the final end of nature according to the teleological worldview of reflecting judgment that Kant introduces to unify the theoretical and practical parts of his philosophical system.
The book was originally published in English by Princeton University Press.
"If Yovel's book shocks some people's preconceived ideas of Kant, that is all to the good: most philosophers have continued far too long to neglect Kant's important post-critical writings in interpreting Kant. Yovel's scholarship is sound, and this book fills a real need for a more rounded picture of Kant's ethics in its relationship to the Enlightenment." - Hilary Putnam, Harvard University
"Of all the recent books on this subject, Yirmiyahu Yovel's is the most ambitious and provocative." - William A. Galston, The Philosophical Review
“[…] Yovel has written a work of importance which goes substantially beyond what was previously available on the subject. He treats an aspect of Kant’s ethics to which Kant himself obviously attached great weight, but which is all too lightly passed over in contemporary discussion; if only for this his book is necessary reading for Kant scholars at least. Yovel has a merit of treating his author with sympathy, without going too far in the direction of indulgence.” - Jstor (History and Theory, vol. 20, no. 2,), by W. H. Walsh, May 1981