Ueber eine Entdeckung nach der alle neue Critik der reinen Vernunft durch eine ältere entbehrlich gemacht werden soll.

Königsberg: den Friedrich Nicolovius,, 1791. Kant versus the rationalists Second edition, published a year after the first, of On a Discovery whereby Any New Critique of Pure Reason Is to Be Made Superfluous by an Older One, a self-defence of Kantian philosophy. The publication of Kant's first Critique (of Pure Reason) in 1781 provoked considerable controversy, the field of German philosophy splitting into Kantian and anti-Kantian factions. The two sides pursued an extended dispute across journals, books, and lectures. Among the most dangerous to Kant was the work of Johann August Eberhard (1739-1809), a professor of theology at Halle and a committed Leibnizian rationalist, who had founded the Philosophisches Magazin in 1788 as an organ for Kantian criticism. The Discovery, provoked by Eberhard's early articles in the Magazin, constitutes Kant's primary contribution to the controversy. Ultimately, the Kantians would win the dispute. The second edition corrects various typographical errors in the first. Octavo (191 x 115 mm). Near-contemporary half sheep, spine with tooled decoration in gilt and orange paper label, tree paper sides, edges light blue. Light bumping and wear, minor browning and foxing to endpapers and content margins, contents crisp: a very good copy. Adickes 70; Warda 133.