Anglophone philosophers with even a passing knowledge of Kant are no doubt familiar with some of his most notable arguments and positions. His conception of the synthetic a priori, the ideality of space and time, and the connections between self-consciousness and the objectivity of representation are all well known. Even more so are Kant's negative arguments against various metaphysical views popular in his day. His critiques of a priori arguments such as the ontological argument and those concerning the nature of the soul earned him Mendelssohn's rueful moniker as the “all-crushing” (alles zermalmenden) Kant, and remain staples of philosophical discussion.
Nicholas Stang, in his new book Kant's Modal Metaphysics, presents a reading of Kant's philosophy that emphasizes the enormous significance of Kant's conception of modality for his mature “critical” philosophy. If Stang's interpretation is correct, then Kant's modal metaphysics warrants much greater attention than it has historically...
