Kant’s Engagement with Hume’s Enquiry: 1762–1765

Abstract

There is still no consensus on the meaning of Kant’s admission within the Prolegomena’s Preface that Hume was responsible for interrupting his “dogmatic slumber.” This article attempts to shed new light on this issue by arguing that this admission refers to a point in Kant’s career when he turned away from the dogmatic metaphysics of the Leibnizian-Wolffian school and appropriated Hume’s skepticism. It argues that this ‘turn’ occurred in 1763 and is evidenced by the content of his essay on Negative Magnitudes. It also argues that the content of Sulzer’s German-language edition of Hume’s first Enquiry was all that was needed to inspire such a turn.