Kant's Thinker

Kant's discussion of the relations between cognition and self-consciousness lie at the heart of the Critique of Pure Reason, in the celebrated transcendental deduction. Although this section of Kant's masterpiece is widely believed to contain important insights into cognition and self-consciousness, it has long been viewed as unusually obscure. Many philosophers have tried to avoid the transcendental psychology that Kant employed. By contrast, Patricia Kitcher follows Kant's careful delineation of the necessary conditions for knowledge and his intricate argument that knowledge requires self-consciousness. She argues that far from being an exercise in armchair psychology, the thesis that thinkers must be aware of the connections among their mental states offers an astute analysis of the requirements of rational thought.

The book opens by situating Kant's theories in the then contemporary debates about 'apperception,' personal identity and the relations between object cognition and self-consciousness. After laying out Kant's argument that the distinctive kind of knowledge that humans have requires a unified self- consciousness, Kitcher considers the implications of his theory for current problems in the philosophy of mind. If Kant is right that rational cognition requires acts of thought that are at least implicitly conscious, then theories of consciousness face a second 'hard problem' beyond the familiar difficulties with the qualities of sensations. How is conscious reasoning to be understood? Kitcher shows that current accounts of the self-ascription of belief have great trouble in explaining the case where subjects know their reasons for the belief. She presents a 'new' Kantian approach to handling this problem. In this way, the book reveals Kant as a thinker of great relevance to contemporary philosophy, one whose allegedly obscure achievements provide solutions to problems that are still with us.

Table des matières

• 1.: Overview


• 1. Introduction


• 2. Interpretive Framework


• 3. Preview


• 4. Current Work on Kant's 'I-think'


• 1.: Background


• 2. Locke's Internal Sense and Kant's Changing Views


• 1. Locke's Influence


• 2. Locke's Complex Theory of Internal Sense


• 3. Kant's Varied Reactions


• 4. 'Inner Sense' in relation to Kantian 'Apperception'


• 5. Kant's Use of 'Inner Sense'


• 3. Personal Identity and Its Problems


• 1. Locke's Problem


• 2. Leibniz's Criticisms and Additions


• 3. Kant and Hume


• 4. Tetens (and Hume)


• 4. Rationalist Metaphysics of Mind


• 1. The Role of Rationalism


• 2. Leibniz's Elegant 'I-theory'


• 3. Faculties, Powers and Substances


• 4. Rational Psychology


• 5. Consciousness, Self-Consciousness and Cognition


• 1. Introduction


• 2. Locke's 'Reflection' and Leibniz's 'Apperception'


• 3. Self-consciousness and Object cognition


• 4. Self-Consciousness through Self-Feeling


• 6. Strands of Argument in the Duisburg Nachla?


• 1. Introduction


• 2. Kant's Objection to the Inaugural Dissertation


• 3. Principles of Appearance and Thought in the Duisburg Nachla?


• 4. What is the Duisburg Nachla?'s Notion of 'Apperception?


• 5. From the Duisburg Nachla? to the Critique


• 2.: Theory


• 7. A Transcendental Deduction for a priori Concepts


• 1. Kant's Goal


• 2. Clues to the Nature of the Argument


• 3. The First Premise of the Transcendental Deduction


• 4. Apriority and Activity


• 5. A 'Transcendental' Deduction


• 8. Synthesis: Why and How?


• 1. Problems to be Solved


• 2. Kant's Definition


• 3. Synthesis and Objective Reference



• A propos de l'auteur

  Patricia Kitcher is Professor of Philosophy, Columbia University.

  Résumé

  Kant's Thinker examines the Critique of Pure Reason's account of the relation between cognition and self-consciousness. It shows how the theory that cognizers must understand their mental states as standing in relations of rational connection has implications for theories of the self-ascription of belief, consciousness and knowledge of other subjects.

  Texte suppl.

  In Kant's Thinker's pages we find a coherent, plausible, interpretation of the issues surrounding Kant's theory of the cognitive subject: cognition, synthesis, apperception, object-consciousness, the failure of rational psychology, whether thinking is an experience, etc. A significant achievement and a lasting contribution to the field.

  Commentaire

  In Kant's Thinker's pages we find a coherent, plausible, interpretation of the issues surrounding Kant's theory of the cognitive subject: cognition, synthesis, apperception, object-consciousness, the failure of rational psychology, whether thinking is an experience, etc. A significant achievement and a lasting contribution to the field. Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews

Détails du produit

• Auteurs: Kitcher, Patricia Kitcher, Kitcher Patricia
• Edition: Oxford University Press
• Langues: Anglais
• Format d'édition: Livre Relié
• Sortie: 07.01.2011
• EAN: 9780199754823
• ISBN: 978-0-19-975482-3
• Pages: 368
• Catégories: Littérature spécialisée > Philosophie, religion > Philosophie: de l'Antiquité à nos jours; Sciences humaines, art, musique > Philosophie > Idéalisme allemand, 19e siècle; PHILOSOPHY / Mind & Body, PHILOSOPHY / History & Surveys / Modern, PHILOSOPHY / History & Surveys / General, Philosophy of Mind, PSYCHOLOGY / Cognitive Psychology & Cognition, Cognition & cognitive psychology, Cognition and cognitive psychology, Philosophical traditions and schools of thought, History of Western philosophy, Western philosophy: Enlightenment