Many of Kant’s works end with a section on “method,” and the title of this appendix suggests he may have something like this in mind here. But his main focus is less how to do metaphysics than how he thinks people interested in metaphysics should respond to his work. He outlines two sorts of judgment along those lines in the introductory paragraph, and they are developed in the two sections that follow.
• The first of these is an attack on a review of Kant’s Critique that he takes to be superficial. Kant’s broader target here is traditional “school metaphysics” (of which he takes the reviewer to be a representative). His choice of what features of his view to speak of here might indicate the ones he takes to be most important. So take note of these and also of the sort of challenge he issues to metaphysics to justify itself. (The author of the review, Christian Garve, is known because he eventually identified himself; however, he disowned the review, which had been substantially modified by an editor. Garve was a well-known figure at the time, though not an original philosopher; he did have criticisms of Kant, but the two men seem to have developed a mutual respect and continued a correspondence until Garve’s death 15 years later.)
• The second section begins with praise for another review of the Critique but quickly turns to broader recommendations and eventually to the value Kant thinks a properly critical metaphysics might have.