IN the “Canon of Pure Reason” as in the entire “Critique,” of which it is a part, Kant attempts to define the laws of the mind’s operation. As his style is obscure and his reasoning abstruse, the practical usefulness of his work is sometimes questioned. When, however, we get beyond metaphysics to the common problems of life and of the experimental science which aims at efficiency, we can see that if the “Canon of Reason” were really ascertained and clearly defined, it would be of the greatest possible advantage. If, for example, the mind operates now as it did at the origin of language, then we have only our own lack of intellectual activity to blame that there is not a true “science of language.” So of “anthropology” in all its phases; so of the higher science of civilization which so many great minds have attempted to create. In the conclusion of the “Canon of Reason,” Kant repudiates the idea that he is attempting to transcend what may be understood as a result of the general experience. “Nature,” he says, “in respect of that which affects all men without distinction, has not to be charged with any partial distribution of its gifts;… the highest philosophy in respect of the essential ends of human nature cannot advance any further than the guide which nature likewise conferred upon the most common understanding.”

  Kant was born at Königsberg, Prussia, April 22d, 1724. His father was a saddler of limited means, who managed, nevertheless, to secure him early educational advantages, which enabled him to enter the university and take his degree. He had supported himself meanwhile by work as a tutor, and a year after his graduation he secured employment in the royal library at Königsberg. Four years later he became professor of Logic and Metaphysics in Königsberg University, a position he held until his death February 12th, 1804. His career was thus identified with his native city, and it is said that he was never more than thirty miles away from it in his life. The “Critique of Pure Reason” (Kritik der Reinen Vernunft), his greatest philosophical work, appeared in 1781. It was followed in 1788 by the “Critique of Practical Reason,” and in 1790 by the “Critique of the Power of Judgment.” Among his other works are “Dreams of a Ghost-Seer,” “Observations on the Sense of the Beautiful and Sublime,” “Metaphysical Elements of Legal Science,” and the “Foundation of the Metaphysics of Ethics.” His “Critique of Pure Reason” is often called the most important work of modern philosophy.