Salomon Maimon and Transcendental Philosophy

Salomon Maimon's work Essay on Transcendental Philosophy has recently been translated into English. The translators include my colleague, Henry Somers Hall and Nick Midgley. There will be a conference to celebrate the translation of this work into English held at Manchester Metropolitan on August 19th and there has been an on-going reading group focused on the work over at Perverse Egalitarianism. I will post a response to the papers of the conference after it has taken place and also intend to lay out some responses here to parts of the work. Maimon was one of the few critics that Kant, in his life-time, suggested was of some importance although it is also true that Kant did not engage Maimon very deeply, not least because he was convinced that the most important task was the elaboration of his own philosophy rather than responding to critics of it. Maimon is also something of a link to the German Idealist tradition that develops in the wake of Kant. Whilst Maimon's response to Kant is focused in the Essay more on theoretical than practical philosophy the implications of some of his challenges to Kant are of wider interest than might be thought, not least in connection with recent analytic responses to Kant from the likes of John McDowell and Wilfrid Sellars so expect more substantive theoretical postings to follow in due course.