critical idealismn.
/ˌkrɪtᵻkl ʌɪˈdɪəlɪz(ə)m/, /ˌkrɪtᵻkl ʌɪˈdiːəlɪz(ə)m/, U.S. /ˌkrɪdək(ə)l aɪˈdi(ə)ˌlɪzəm/ Philosophy.
The transcendental idealism of Immanuel Kant (1724–1804) and (later) other philosophies similarly founded on the critical examination (as opposed to the justification) of knowledge. Cf. transcendental idealism.
ΚΠ
1797 tr. J. S. Beck Princ. Crit. Philos. i. iv. 188 Agreeably to this critical idealism, we observe, that positions, which express something of the empirical regression, are even on that account valid of the world itself.
1832 A. Johnson tr. W. G. Tennemann Man. Hist. Philos. iii. 405 The grand conclusion of the Critical system of Kant is this, that no object can be known to us except in proportion as it is apprehended by our perceptions, and definable by our faculties for knowledge; consequently, we know nothing per se, but only by means of its phenomena. In this consists his Critical Idealism, (being founded on a critical examination of the faculties of knowledge).
1978 M. Ermarth William Dilthey: Critique Hist. Reason (1981) v. 257 Dilthey's theory of understanding took its position between the uncritical realism implied by immediate reexperiencing and the critical idealism of the neo-Kantians.
1997 H. S. Harris tr. G. W. F. Hegel Ladder I. ii. 147 The ‘common sense’ school of philosophy had existed in Germany for about fifty years. They opposed the new critical idealism of Kant.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, March 2022).
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n.1797