11 - Hermann Andreas Pistorius

Summary

The third and final review authored by Pistorius in this volume is his review of the second Critique. The review completes a fascinating exchange between Pistorius and Kant that begins with the former’s early review of Schultz’s Elucidations and the Groundwork, among others, continues with Kant’s responses to these reviews in the second Critique, and ends here with Pistorius’ review of the second Critique. In the review, Pistorius returns to some of the same points made in his previous reviews, such as the ‘priority of the good’ objection, the charge of empty formalism, and Kant’s conception of freedom. A major theme of the review is Pistorius’ inability to accept Kant’s distinction between the empirical and intelligible character of human beings, and other topics include a discussion of the highest good and Kant’s relationship to Stoic moral philosophy.