I had a very encouraging and helpful response from the UNC Philosophy Department to my inquiry about teaching a Reading Group [not for credit] on the First Critique so I am going to do that this fall. It will be a series [perhaps twelve or more] of two hour lectures on the work, taking students through the entire text. The lectures will be recorded and put up on YouTube as I proceed. It has been more than twenty years since I taught the Critique, and I am looking forward to the challenge. If my Brown experience is any indication, the classroom format should work nicely. Whether anyone will actually watch even one of them, let alone all of them, I leave to the ages. Monsieur de Sainte-Colombe would not be concerned about such things.
Wallyver, the only good English translation, which is the gold standard, is by Norman Kemp Smith, readily available. With that I strongly recommend my commentary, Kant's Theory of Mental Activity. I just checked Amazon.com, and there are copies available, plus a Kindle edition [who knew?]
Don't read the Prolegomena first. It is actually misleading, for reasons I will perhaps explain in my lectures. But it wouldn't hurt to review Descartes' Meditations on First Philosophy and Book I Parts i and iii of Hume's Treatise of Human Nature.
What makes Kemp Smith "the only good English translation', in relation to Guyer's recent Cambridge translation or Pluhar's Hackett translation? These two were undertaken to remedy defects and inaccuracies in Kemp Smith - so presumably in their eyes Kemp Smith can't be "the only good English translation".
ReplyDeleteOK. I will confess that I have not studied those translations to see the points of difference. I will recant and just say that I plan to use the Kemp Smith translation.
ReplyDeleteI gather that the basic texts for the course will be the Critique and the Foundations. Is that correct?
ReplyDeleteI ask because I'll make an effort to follow the course, but I don't have time to do any extra reading. I may even end up reading both in Spanish translations since it's easier and cheaper for me to buy them.
Thanks for doing the course, in any case. I'm looking forward to it.
Very much looking forward to your lecture series on the CPR.
ReplyDeleteOnly the Critique, not the Foundations. The Critique all by itself is more than enough!!
ReplyDeleteThe Cambridge translation may be more literal, but I still prefer Kemp Smith. The Pluhar translation drives me batty because of the excessive translation related footnotes. Meaning is more important than literalness, and here Kemp Smith has the advantage.
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