Critique of Pure Reason

The Truth About Brain Rot

Deep Questions with Cal Newport, 21 September 2026.

Cal Newport, responding to a listener named Mika who asked about philosophers thinking about thinking, briefly discusses Kant's Critique of Pure Reason. Newport says he has never read it in full but knows some of its ideas, describing it as being about a priori reasoning—forming thoughts not based on external observation. He calls it a long but interesting book, then notes that this tradition of philosophical inquiry into cognition was largely displaced in the 20th century by psychology and neuroscience.

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