The Skeptical Roots of Critique : Hume's Attack on Theology and the Origin of Kant's Antinomy

In The Skeptical Roots of Critique, Abraham Anderson shows that Kant''s Critique of Pure Reason is the heir to Hume''s skepticism about metaphysics. In showing that Kant''s Antinomy flows from Hume''s skepticism, this work connects Kant with the skeptical tradition reaching back to the ancients. Like Hume''s Enquiry and Dialogues and Rousseau''s Émile, the Critique is part of the battle for Enlightenment, the struggle against the ''despotic'' reign of theological dogmatism. The victory of philosophy has led us to forget there ever was such a battle; Anderson aims to bring it to life by exploring the growth of the Critique.

"It was the objection of David Hume," Kant wrote, "that first [. . .] interrupted my dogmatic slumber"; "it was the fourfold Antinomy [. . .]", he wrote later, "that first woke me from dogmatic slumber." How can Kant have been woken both by Hume and by the Antinomy? In The Skeptical Roots of Critique, Abraham Anderson solves this problem by showing that the Antinomy was inspired by Hume''s skepticism, whose primary target was metaphysics and especially theology. The Critique is not the refutation of that skepticism, but "the execution of Hume''s problem in its broadest possible elaboration." In showing that the Antinomy flows from Hume, this work connects Kant with the skeptical tradition, and particularly with the antitheological skepticism of Hume''s master Bayle. Like Hume''s Enquiry and Dialogues, the Critique is part of the battle for Enlightenment, the struggle against the "despotic" reign of theological dogmatism.