Ⅰ．The Basic Historical Background of Introduction to Future Metaphysics

Kant's philosophy is undoubtedly the initiator of the peak of German classical philosophy, and his great works help to carry on the previous philosophical tradition and start philosophical inquiry in today's sense. Its significance of Copernican revolution has long been known, so I won't describe it in details. Introduction to Future Metaphysics is an explanatory book, which aims to explain to philosophy teachers the ideas that are not understood by people in Critique of Pure Reason in a concise way as possible. Its writing motivation can be found in Kant's letter to Bistel:

“Therefore, ( Critique of Pure Reason ) sometimes leaves behind some careless or hasty writing, sometimes some obscure things..., but sometimes some explanations are needed, which is beneficial to this top priority.”

In other words, Introduction to Future Metaphysics , a short book for Kant, is only to restate and explain his transcendental idealism.

Introduction is not written for ordinary readers, because metaphysics,which declined in the 18th century, is only an object and discipline that a few people can understand. As Kant pointed out in the preface of this book: “This introduction is not for students, but for future teachers. Even for future teachers, it should not be used to arrange a ready-made scientific exposition, but should be used to explore this science first.” Therefore,Kant took this book as a metaphysical exploration, trying to completely break the arrogance of dogmatism (which includes both rationalism and empiricism), and opened a new path for the exploration of metaphysics in later generations of metaphysics as science.