Immanuel Kant's precursor turn

By examining Kant’s two “precritical,” works written before the critique of Pure Reason, the present book shows a more unified than usual way of thinking that has generally taken a turn in his philosophy. Already the Dreams of the One Ghost (1766) shows the interrelationship of the main parts of the future system and assigns the resulting task to metaphysics. The precepts of morality are engraved in the heart of man as direct motives ("what should I do?"); the hope of the afterlife and the faith of God ("what should I hope for?") can be based on a virtuous life; speculation on this subject is both impossible and unnecessary, so the development of a science on the limits of human reason ("what can I know?") will be a new officer in metaphysics defending morality and religion. To the conscious execution of this task belongs the Dissertation Dissertation (1770), which, according to one of the main theses of the book, already contains the basic idea of the turning point. The morality that exists in the common man, and the religiosity that results from it, thus "precedes" what Kant will call criticism — in a deeper sense, this precedent is referred to in the title as a precursor.