Write an essay (of roughly 2-3 pp. or 600-900 words) one reporting something you noticed in Kemp Smith’s commentary. The point is partly to give you the experience of using a commentary and partly to give you a first taste of putting your understanding of Kant into writing for others to read.

Although you can certainly turn to Kemp Smith to answer a question you already had, it might be easiest to just browse in Kemp Smith until you find something that interests you. But, whether or not you began with a question, your paper should be framed as if you did. That is, you should describe a passage in Kant, explain how a question might arise concerning it, describe a discussion you found in Kemp Smith, and explain how this could be understood as an answer to that question. You don’t have to accept the answer you find as a good one; but, although evaluative comments would not be inappropriate, the intended focus of this paper is exposition, so don’t stint on that to provide room for a critical discussion.

Anything in Kemp Smith is fine as a topic (though, of course, you will only be able to describe short passages in both him and Kant in a paper this length). Although you may have many questions about the transcendental deduction you would like answers to, I’ll warn you that the nature of Kemp Smith’s interpretation of that part of Kant may make the corresponding part of his commentary less easy browse or absorb in small chunks than his discussions of other parts of Kant.

Remember that you can find the commentary on line at

http://persweb.wabash.edu/facstaff/helmang/KRVcmmntry/KRVcmmntry.htm

and there is a link to it also on the course Canvas site. You will find a detailed table of contents right after a short preface, and that is organized in a way that follows Kant’s text. Kemp Smith will often refer to organization of Kant’s text in subheadings that don’t appear in that table, so browsing through his commentary with Kant’s text (or the Guyer-Wood table of contents) in front of you can be a good way of finding Kemp Smith’s discussion of particular points. When Kemp Smith is discussing specific passage he often notes the 1st or 2nd edition page number in a footnote (even when he is not quoting something), so one way to look for a discussion of a particular passage is to search (in the browser window, not on the web) by the likes of ‘A nnn’ or ‘B nnn’.

While I’d be happy to accept your assignment on paper, it is more convenient for me to receive work electronically; and, since I haven’t set up the course Canvas site for assignments, that means using e-mail—my address is helmang@wabash.edu. An e-mail attachment is probably most convenient.