Kant and the transparency of the mind

Alexandra M. Newton

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

It has become standard to treat Kant’s characterization of pure apperception as involving the claim that questions about what I think are transparent to questions about the world. By contrast, empirical apperception is thought to be non-transparent, since it involves a kind of inner observation of my mental states. I propose a reading that reverses this: pure apperception is non-transparent, because conscious only of itself, whereas empirical apperception is transparent to the world. The reading I offer, unlike the standard one, can accommodate Kant’s claim that the I of pure apperception is the same as the I of empirical apperception.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)890-915
Number of pages26
JournalCanadian Journal of Philosophy
Volume49
Issue number7
DOIs
StatePublished - Oct 3 2019

Keywords

  • Evans
  • Kant
  • Sartre
  • Self-consciousness
  • apperception
  • transparency

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Philosophy

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'Kant and the transparency of the mind'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this