IMMANUEL KANT’S ‘EXPERIMENT OF PURE REASON’

The paper exposes the specificity of Immanuel Kant’s concept of the ‘experiment of pure reason’ as outlined in the preface to the second edition of his ‘Critique of Pure Reason’. Kant considered the experiment of pure reason a synthetic method of metaphysics, which could be regarded as a scientific method if metaphysics were considered a genuine science of speculative pure reason. This method involves generating a conjecture that could catalyst a revolution in metaphysics and elevate it to an authentic science through which reason (Vernunft) can concise the world, much like mathematics or natural science (physics). The essence of the experiment of pure reason is to distinguish between things as phenomena, that is, the objects of experience and understanding (Verstand) and things in themselves, which, although unknowable, give rise to the principle of the unconditioned that harmonises the parts of human cognition.