The book

As my reader probably remembers, I have a book coming out in the Summer, from the good folks at Catholic University of America Press. All praise is due to Allah for this press; it was hard to find someone to publish it.

They asked me to write the back copy recently. It's difficult, because lots of people, I think, might actually buy a book on the basis of what is on its back. So I had to write something that was zippy and provocative, but it was a book about logic, Kant, and the Critique of Pure Reason. I have pretty minimal expectations that anyone is going to be able to pick this thing up in a bookstore to begin with, but just in case, I wanted something, well, zippy and provocative.

I've given below the one I wrote, and the one I considered. Let me know which one I should use.

A

Combining the effervescent prose of Ken Kesey, the incandescent ledgerdemain of Borges, and the depth of Aristotle, Kurt Mosser has produced a book that answers—correctly—all questions about the philosophy of Kant. It also provides, in an appendix, handy instructions for how best to insulate one's house, and an outstanding recipe for Crawfish Etoufée.

Kant's reputation for difficulty is shown to be overstated, and following Mosser's simple advice, the reader will, in no time, be an expert not just on Kant' s Transcendental Philosophy, the history of logic, postmodernism, and epistemology, but also on German Idealism, Delta Blues, Sudoku, linear algebra, and how to get chocolate stains out of wool. After reading this book, the reader can stride confidently into any English, German, French or Italian bar, confident of the expectation that before the night is over, he or she will have not bought a single drink after having amazed, astounded, and baffled the crowd with insights and bons mots hitherto unavailable to homo sapiens. There is also a two-for-one coupon for Applebee's.

An underground classic.

B

If logic provides rules for thought, can there be similar rules for human experience? Kurt Mosser argues that reading Kant’s Critique of Pure Reason as an argument for such a logic of experience makes more defensible many of Kant’s most controversial claims, and makes more accessible Kant’s notoriously difficult text. By pursuing this strategic hint, Kant’s philosophical claims about human experience are seen as extraordinarily strong—as universal and necessary—but only as providing the conditions for experience to be possible. Thus just as logic doesn’t determine what thoughts are about, such a logic of experience doesn’t determine the content of experience.

Drawing on Kant’s published and unpublished texts and a wide range of texts from the history of logic and philosophical inquiries into language, Mosser provides an interpretation of some of Kant’s most difficult arguments, such as the Metaphysical Deduction. He demonstrates that, in spite of appearances, Kant appeals to common sense to reveal both the scope and limits of human knowledge. Engaging a wide range of writers, including W.V. Quine, Donald Davidson, Richard Rorty, and Michel Foucault, Kant’s arguments are also shown to retain considerable relevance to contemporary issues in epistemology, the philosophy of language, and current debates over postmodernism.