The purpose of this anthology is to bring together in one volume some of the texts published in the series "Werkprofile", which focus on Kant’s relationship to his philosophical contemporaries and predecessors, and to make them accessible to a wider audience in English. In doing so, the volume is aimed at those who have an interest in better understanding the premises of Kant's philosophy, its historical context, and the development of many of Kant’s fundamental ideas. As it is often hard to glean philosophical motivation directly from reading Kant’s texts, understanding Kant’s commitment to answering certain questions and his silence on others, requires a historical approach. This broader purview will also be helpful for grasping deeper systematic questions at work throughout Kant’s philosophy. The anthology thus aims at inviting a more wide-angled view of Kant’s philosophy by focusing on overlooked references and historical figures. Scholarship on these references is still at an early stage, even though important steps have been taken in this direction in recent years. The aim of our volume is to build on this development and to supplement and expand the content of existing research.

On the basis of the Thomist and Pietist tradition, Christian August Crusius (1715-1775) elaborated a philosophically challenging and influential alternative to the philosophy of Christian Wolff. For the first time, this edited collection offers a rigorous overview of the work of the Leipzig-based philosopher and theologian.

Kanta (TM)s definition of substance is the focus of this philosophical study. The analysis shows that an adequate understanding of the term and the a oecriticala metaphysics of the substance which result from it must take into account the philosophical controversy over the simple substance in the first half of the 18th century dominated by Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz and Christian Wolff. It is only against this background that the complexity and inconsistence of the a oecriticala concept of substance becomes fully apparent.