Within a few years of the publication of his Critique of Pure Reason in 1781, Immanuel Kant (1724–1804) was recognized by his contemporaries as one of the seminal philosophers of modern times – indeed, as one of the great philosophers of all time. This renown soon spread beyond German-speaking lands, and translations of Kant's work into English were published even before 1800. Since then, interpretations of Kant's views have come and gone and loyalty to his positions has waxed and waned, but his importance has not diminished. Generations of scholars have devoted their efforts to producing reliable translations of Kant into English as well as into other languages.

There are four main reasons for the present edition of Kant's writings:

1. Completeness. Although most of the works published in Kant's lifetime have been translated before – the most important ones more than once – only fragments of Kant's many important unpublished works have ever been translated. These include the Opus postumum, Kant's unfinished magnum opus on the transition from philosophy to physics; transcriptions of his classroom lectures; his correspondence; and his marginalia and other notes. One aim of this edition is to make a comprehensive sampling of these materials available in English for the first time.

2. Availability. Many English translations of Kant's works, especially those that have not individually played a large role in the subsequent development of philosophy, have long been inaccessible or out of print.

Translator's introduction

Was heisst: Sich im Denken orientiren? was first published in October 1786 in the Berlinische Monatschrift Mill, pp. 304–30.

The “Orientation” essay is Kant's contribution to the so-called pantheism controversy, one of the eighteenth century's most famous and influential philosophical disputes, whose course helped determine the course of German philosophy well into the following century. The principals in the dispute were F. H. Jacobi and Moses Mendelssohn, and its focus was the alleged Spinozism of Gotthold Ephraim Lessing. Mendelssohn and Lessing had been close friends for many years. After Lessing's death in 1781 Mendelssohn intended to write a laudatory character sketch of one of the eighteenth century's greatest and most respected German writers and thinkers, particularly on the topics of religion and art. Toward the end of his life, however, Lessing had also been acquainted with the much younger Jacobi, to whom (as Jacobi claimed) Lessing had confessed his allegiance to the philosophical principles of Spinoza. This was extremely disturbing, since Spinoza was widely regarded as an atheist and necessitarian whose principles were subversive of all religion and morality. The suggestion that the great rationalist Lessing might have been a secret Spinozist was both shocking to the learned public and at the same time profoundly ambiguous in its implications. On the one hand, it could mean that the principles of Enlightenment rationalism might in fact be morally and religiously subversive; on the other hand, it could mean that Spinozist pantheism was a more formidable philosophical position than rationalist orthodoxy allowed.

The following text has been broken up into seven chapters corresponding to the major themes in Kant's argument. The chapter headings are provided by the editor.