Author(s)

Qingyuan Cai ¹

Affiliation(s)

¹ School of Marxism, Yili Normal University, Yining China

Corresponding Author

Qingyuan Cai

ABSTRACT

This paper investigates whether Immanuel Kant distinguishes between reasons (Gründe) and causes (Ursachen) within his transcendental philosophy, and how Friedrich Engels' critique of Kant's thing-in-itself thesis engages with this distinction. Kant explicitly separates the logical domain of reasons—pertaining to justification and rational grounding—from the causal domain of natural necessity, which belongs to phenomenal appearances. However, his agnosticism about the thing-in-itself blurs this distinction when extended to metaphysics. Drawing on recent Kant scholarship, this paper shows that Kant's distinction is analytically robust but ontologically limited. Engels, by contrast, appeals to practical activity (experiment and industry) to refute Kant's unknowable thing-in-itself, thereby demonstrating that reasons and causes are unified in successful human action. The paper reconstructs Engels' critique, addresses misunderstandings by Chernov and Lukács, and concludes that while Kant provides a powerful analytical distinction, Engels' practical materialism offersa compelling dialectical synthesis.

KEYWORDS

Kant; Thing-in-Itself; Reasons and Causes; Engels; Practice; Transcendental Philosophy

CITE THIS PAPER

Qingyuan Cai. Kant's Distinction between Reasons and Causes Based on Engels' View. Philosophy Journal (2026). Vol. 5, No.1, 35-41. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.23977/phij.2026.050106.

REFERENCES

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[3] K. Ameriks. Kant's Theory of Mind: An Analysis of the Paralogisms of Pure Reason[M]. Oxford University Press, 1982.
[4] I. Kant. Critique of Pure Reason (P. Guyer & A. Wood, Trans.)[M]. Cambridge University Press, 1998.
[5] F.Engels. Ludwig Feuerbach and the End of Classical German Philosophy[M]. In Marx & Engels Collected Works. International Publishers, 1975.
[6] F.Engels. Introduction to the English Edition of 'Socialism: Utopian and Scientific'[M]. In Marx & Engels Collected Works. International Publishers, 1975.
[7] V. I. Lenin. Materialism and Empirio-Criticism[M]. In Collected Works. Progress Publishers, 1972.
[8] F. Engels. Dialectics of Nature[M]. In Marx & Engels Collected Works. International Publishers, 1975.
[9] G. Lukács. History and Class Consciousness (R. Livingstone, Trans.)[M]. MIT Press, 1971.

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