Abstract

Julian Wuerth - Kant's Immediatism, Pre-Critique - Journal of the History of Philosophy 44:4 Journal of the History of Philosophy 44.4 489-532 Muse Search Journals This Journal Contents Kant's Immediatism, Pre-Critique Julian Wuerth As the author of a copernican revolution in philosophy, Kant argues that philosophy begins with the study of the self. To grasp the scope and nature of knowledge in natural science, ethics, and aesthetics, we must first understand the self and its faculties of representation, pleasure, and desire, respectively. While the literature acknowledges the foundational role of Kant's account of the self in his system of philosophy, it typically focuses on Kant's isolated conclusions about a priori concepts, or on the ontology of the self solely as Kant presents it in his rejection of rational psychology. The result is a gap in the commentary. The place of these conclusions in a single, broader account of the self, and the positive ontological status of this self, remains largely a mystery. These shortcomings are related: Kant's account of the ontology of the self provides the background for understanding the unity and interrelations of the many different powers of the self and their accidents, including a priori concepts. A recent spate of literature on Kant's account of the self addresses important components of this account but perpetuates some traditional methodological weaknesses. The often original commentaries by..