Kants View of the Mind and Consciousness of Self.docx

Kants View of the Mind and Consciousness of Self.docx

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KantsViewoftheMindandConsciousnessofSelf

11Kant'sViewoftheMindandConsciousnessofSelf

FirstpublishedMonJul26,2004;substantiverevisionMonOct20,2008

EventhoughKanthimselfheldthathisviewofthemindandconsciousnesswereinessentialtohismainpurpose,someofhisideascametohaveanenormousinfluenceonhissuccessors.Ideascentraltohisviewarenowcentraltocognitivescience.Otherideasequallycentraltohispointofviewhadalmostnoinfluenceonsubsequentwork,however.Inthisarticle,firstwesurveyKant'smodelasawholeandtheclaimsthathavebeeninfluential.Thenweexaminehisclaimsaboutconsciousnessofselfspecifically.Manyofhisideasabouttheconsciousnessofselfandrelatedissueshavenotbeeninfluential.Indeed,eventhoughheachievedremarkableinsightsintoconsciousnessofself,theynextappearedonly200yearslater,inthe1960sand1970s.

∙1.ASketchofKant'sViewoftheMind

∙2.Kant'sCriticalProjectandHowtheMindFitsIntoIt

o2.1TranscendentalAesthetic

o2.2MetaphysicalDeduction

o2.3TranscendentalDeduction,1st Edition

o2.4AttackontheParalogisms,1st Edition

o2.5TwoDiscussionsinthe2nd-editionTDandOtherDiscussions

∙3.Kant'sViewofthemind

o3.1Method

o3.2SynthesisandFaculties

▪3.2.1SynthesisofApprehensioninIntuition

▪3.2.2SynthesisofReproductioninImagination

▪3.2.3SynthesisofRecognitioninaConcept

o3.3Synthesis:

A90°Turn

o3.4UnityofConsciousness

∙4.ConsciousnessofSelfandKnowledgeofSelf

o4.1SevenThesesAboutConsciousnessofandKnowledgeofSelf

▪4.1.1Thesis1:

TwoKindsofConsciousnessofSelf

▪4.1.2Thesis2:

RepresentationalBaseofConsciousnessofSelf

▪4.1.3Thesis3:

ConsciousOnlyofHowOneAppearstoOneself

▪4.1.4Thesis4:

ReferentialMachineryofConsciousnessofSelf

▪4.1.5Thesis5:

NoManifoldinConsciousnessofSelf

▪4.1.6Thesis6:

ConsciousnessofSelfisnotKnowledgeofSelf

▪4.1.7Thesis7:

ConsciousofSelfasSingle,CommonSubjectofExperience

∙5.KnowledgeoftheMind

∙6.WhereKantHasandHasNotInfluencedContemporaryCognitiveResearch

∙Bibliography

∙OtherInternetResources

∙RelatedEntries

1.ASketchofKant'sViewoftheMind

Inthisarticle,wewillfocusonImmanuelKant's（1724-1804）workonthemindandconsciousnessofselfandrelatedissues.

SomecommentatorsbelievethatKant'sviewsonthemindaredependentonhisidealism（hecalledittranscendentalidealism）.Forthemostpart,thatisnotso.Atworst,mostofwhathesaidaboutthemindandconsciousnesscanbedetachedfromhisidealism.ThoughoftenviewedasaquintessentiallyGermanphilosopher,Kantissaidtohavebeenone-quarterScottish.Somephilosophers（oftenScottish）holdthat‘Kant’isaGermanizationoftheScottishname‘Candt’,thoughmanyscholarsnowrejecttheidea.Itisnoteworthy,however,thathisworkonepistemology,whichledhimtohisideasaboutthemind,wasaresponseto Hume asmuchastoanyotherphilosopher.

Ingeneralstructure,Kant'smodelofthemindwasthedominantmodelintheempiricalpsychologythatflowedfromhisworkandthenagain,afterahiatusduringwhichbehaviourismreignedsupreme（roughly1910to1965）,towardtheendofthe20th century,especiallyincognitivescience.CentralelementsofthemodelsofthemindofthinkersotherwiseasdifferentasSigmundFreudandJerryFodorarebroadlyKantian,forexample.

Threeideasdefinethebasicshape（‘cognitivearchitecture’）ofKant'smodelandoneitsdominantmethod.Theyhaveallbecomepartofthefoundationofcognitivescience.

1.Themindiscomplexsetofabilities（functions）.（AsMeerbote1989andmanyothershaveobserved,Kantheldafunctionalistviewofthemindalmost200yearsbeforefunctionalismwasofficiallyarticulatedinthe1960sbyHilaryPutnamandothers.）

2.Thefunctionscrucialformental,knowledge-generatingactivityarespatio-temporalprocessingof,andapplicationofconceptsto,sensoryinputs.Cognitionrequiresconceptsaswellaspercepts.

3.ThesefunctionsareformsofwhatKantcalledsynthesis.Synthesis（andtheunityinconsciousnessrequiredforsynthesis）arecentraltocognition.

Thesethreeideasarefundamentaltomostthinkingaboutcognitionnow.Kant'smostimportantmethod,thetranscendentalmethod,isalsoattheheartofcontemporarycognitivescience.

∙Tostudythemind,infertheconditionsnecessaryforexperience.Argumentshavingthisstructurearecalledtranscendentalarguments.

Translatedintocontemporaryterms,thecoreofthismethodisinferencetothebestexplanation,themethodofpostulatingunobservablementalmechanismsinordertoexplainobservedbehaviour.

Tobesure,Kantthoughtthathecouldgetmoreoutofhistranscendentalargumentsthanjust‘bestexplanations’.Hethoughtthathecouldget apriori （experienceindependent）knowledgeoutofthem.Kanthadatripartitedoctrineofthe apriori. Heheldthatsomefeaturesofthemindanditsknowledgehad apriori origins,i.e.,mustbeinthemindpriortoexperience（becauseusingthemisnecessarytohaveexperience）.Thatmindandknowledgehavethesefeaturesare apriori truths,i.e.,necessaryanduniversal（B3/4）[1].Andwecancometoknowthesetruths,orthattheyare apriori atanyrate,onlybyusing apriori methods,i.e.,wecannotlearnthesethingsfromexperience（B3）（Brook1993）.Kantthoughtthattranscendentalargumentswere apriori oryieldedthe apriori inallthreeways.Nonetheless,attheheartofthismethodisinferencetothebestexplanation.Whenintrospectionfelloutoffavourabout100yearsago,thealternativeapproachadoptedwasexactlythisapproach.ItsnonempiricalrootsinKantnotwithstanding,itisnowthemajormethodusedbyexperimentalcognitivescientists.

OtherthingsequallycentraltoKant'sapproachtothemindhavenotbeentakenupbycognitivescience,aswewillseeneartheend,akeypartofhisdoctrineofsynthesisandmostofwhathehadtosayaboutconsciousnessofselfinparticular.Farfromhismodelhavingbeensupersededbycognitivescience,someimportantthingshavenotevenbeenassimilatedbyit.

2.Kant'sCriticalProjectandHowtheMindFitsIntoIt

ThemajorworkssofarasKant'sviewsonthemindareconcernedarethemonumental CritiqueofPureReason（CPR） andhislittle,lateAnthropologyfromaPragmaticPointofView,firstpublishedin1798onlysixyearsbeforehisdeath.Sincethe Anthropology wasworkedupfromnotesforpopularlectures,itisoftensuperficialcomparedto CPR. Kant'sviewofthemindarosefromhis generalphilosophicalproject in CPR thefollowingway.Kantaimedamongotherthingsto,

∙Justifyourconvictionthatphysics,likemathematics,isabodyofnecessaryanduniversaltruth.

∙Insulatereligion,includingbeliefinimmortality,andfreewillfromthecorrosiveeffectsofthisverysamescience.

Kantacceptedwithoutreservationthat“God,freedomandimmortality”（1781/7,Bxxx）existbutfearedthat,ifsciencewererelevanttotheirexistenceatall,itwouldprovidereasonstodoubtthattheyexist.Ashesawitandveryfortunately,sciencecannottouchthesequestions.“Ihavefounditnecessarytodeny knowledge,…inordertomakeroomfor faith.” （Bxxx,hisitalics）.

Layingthefoundationforpursuitofthefirstaim,whichashesawitwasnolessthantheaimofshowingwhyphysicsisascience,waswhatledKanttohisviewsabouthowthemindworks.Heapproachedthegroundingofphysicsbyasking:

Whatarethenecessaryconditionsofexperience（A96）?

Putsimply,heheldthatforourexperience,andthereforeourminds,tobeastheyare,thewaythatourexperienceistiedtogethermustreflectthewaythatphysicssaysthatobjectsintheworldmustbetiedtogether.Seeingthisconnectionalsotellsusalotaboutwhatourmindsmustbelike.

Hispursuitofthesecondaim,andspecificallyhis critiqueofsomeargumentsofhispredecessors thatentailedthatwecanknowmoreaboutthemind'sconsciousnessofitselfthanKantcouldalso,ledhimtosomeextraordinarilypenetratingideasaboutourconsciousnessofourselves.

In CPR, Kantdiscussedthemindonlyinconnectionwithhismainprojects,neverinitsownright,sohistreatmentisremarkablyscatteredandsketchy.Asheputit,“Enquiry…[into]thepureunderstandingitself,itspossibilityandthecognitivefacultiesuponwhichitrests…isofgreatimportanceformychiefpurpose,…[but]doesnotformanessentialpartofit”（Axvii）.Indeed,Kantoffersnosustained,focusseddiscussionofthemindanywhereinhisworkexceptthepopular Anthropology, which,aswejustsaid,isquitesuperficial.

Inaddition,thetwochaptersof CPR inwhichmostofKant'sremarksonthemindoccur,thechapterontheTranscendentalDeduction（TD）andthechapteronwhathecalledParalogisms（faultyargumentsaboutthemindmountedbyhispredecessors）werethetwochaptersthatgavehimthegreatestdifficulty.（Theycontainsomeofthemostimpenetrableproseeverwritten.）Kantcompletelyrewrotethemainbodyofbothchaptersforthesecondedition（thoughnottheintroductions,interestingly）.

Inthetwoeditionsof CPR, therearesevenmaindiscussionsofthemind.ThefirstisintheTranscendentalAesthetic,thesecondisinwhatisusuallycalledtheMetaphysicalDeduction（forthisterm,seebelow）.Thentherearetwodiscussionsofitinthefirst-editionTD,inparts1to3ofSection2（A98uptoA110）andinthewholeofSection3（A115-A127）[2] andtwomoreinthesecond-editionTD,fromB129toB140andfromB153toB159,thelatterseeminglyaddedasakindofsupplement.TheseventhandlastisfoundinthefirsteditionversionofKant'satt