Die Religion innerhalb der Grenzen der Bloßen Vernunft.

First edition. 8vo. xx, [2], 296, [2] pp. Contemporary half calf with sprinkled paper covered boards, spine with five single raised bands outlined in gilt, second panel lettered in gilt on red morocco label, marbled endpapers, red edges (some occasional scattered foxing throughout; extremities slightly rubbed, front hinge just starting to split at foot but holding firmly, still a very good copy indeed). Königsberg, Friedrich Nicolovius.

Generally considered to be the most important of Kant's most important work on the philosophy of religion. The collection of essays does not merely amount to 'a theoretical treatise, meant as a contribution to the philosophy of religion; it was also a political act [and] Kant's declaration of loyalty to Lessing and Mendelssohn. Kant's Religion, Lessing's Education of the Human Race (1780), and Mendelssohn's Jerusalem (1783) were all valiant attempts to introduce into Prussia the kind of religious freedom that had by then already been achieved in the United States. Lessing and Mendelssohn were dead. Kant carried on the fight. That he was concerned not only with religious freedom but ultimately with full-fledged civil freedom, is clear' (Manfred Kuehn, Kant: A Biography, pp. 371-2). However, it ultimately brought Kant the disfavour of King Frederick Wilhelm II of Prussia due to its non-conformist ideas, leading to the suppression of Kant's works and forcing him to cease lecturing philosophy until after the Kings death in 1797.

Warda, 141.

Stock Code: 250335