ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses Immanuel Kant's response to David Hume, in view of the importance of his severe criticism of classical British empiricism in general, and of Hume's position in particular. In 1781, Kant completed the search for a response, not only to Hume’s scepticism but to rationalism as well, particularly to Wilhelm Leibniz's theories of Contradiction and Sufficient Reason. Kant viewed Hume's philosophical position as sharing a one-sidedness approach, especially with Leibniz's principles of contradiction and sufficient reason. Empiricists argue that in matters of morals, passions are crucial, in that they play a principal role, leaving to the faculty of reason only an instrumental one. Kant viewed rationalism and empiricism as sources of disastrous confusion, regarding the correct understanding of the universe as a whole. He saw rationalism and empiricism as sharing a dangerous common philosophical outlook, namely, a one-sided approach to human issues.
