Edition Project

In Volume I, Riehl outlines a history of criticism and positions his own philosophical approach within it. The most important point of reference is Kant's Critique of Pure Reason, whose empiricist sources and systematic doctrines he reconstructs. The first volume can therefore be read as a book about Kant and his philosophical predecessors and at the same time as a systematic examination of the critical philosophy. The book thus occupies a unique position in the history of philosophy and science and still represents a highly topical attempt at an integrated history and philosophy of science.

After Riehl presents the philosophical-historical contours of criticism in the first volume and positions his own project, he develops the foundations of his critical realism in the first half-volume of Part II. In section 1, Riehl explicates his concept of sensation, develops a critical conception of space and time, and places both in the context of the theories of perception of his time. Building on this, section 2 introduces the principle of identity, the principle of sufficient reason and the concepts of substance, force and magnitude. In doing so, Riehl rewrites Kant’s Critique of Pure Reason, based on the fundamental differentiation between Transcendental Aesthetics and Transcendental Logic. In contrast to Kant’s first Critique, the emphasis is on the sensory foundations of knowledge. Riehl thus succeeds in establishing a balance between both sides of the so-called two-stems doctrine of human cognition. That is why the volume is also programmatically entitled Die sinnlichen und logischen Grundlagen der Erkenntnis.

TBA