Britannica Sources used in this answer

What are Immanuel Kant’s three Critiques?

Created from Britannica articles using AI. AI can make mistakes, so verify using Britannica articles.

Immanuel Kant German philosopher Immanuel Kant surrounded by Ouroboros, an emblematic serpent of ancient Egypt and Greece, engraving by John Chapman, published in London, 1812.

Immanuel Kant’s three "critical" works, often referred to as his three Critiques, revolutionized modern philosophy by examining the nature and limits of human reason.12

The Three Critiques

Critique of Pure Reason (1781, 1787): This foundational work focuses on epistemology and metaphysics. It investigates the conditions of human knowledge, arguing that while our minds provide the framework (such as space, time, and categories) for understanding experience, we cannot gain knowledge of things that transcend sense experience, such as God or the soul.132
Critique of Practical Reason (1788): This work serves as the primary source for Kant’s ethics. It explores how reason functions in the moral sphere, emphasizing the categorical imperative and arguing that concepts like freedom, God, and immortality—though unknowable through pure reason—are essential postulates for moral life.134
Critique of Judgment (1790): The final critique examines the faculty of judgment as it relates to aesthetics and teleology. It analyzes how we perceive beauty and how we interpret natural organisms as if they were the product of design, bridging the gap between the sensible and suprasensible worlds.13