Phd in PHILOSOPHY

The purpose of my research is to examine the theoretical meaning of the complex of concepts Kant uses to refer to the idea of a non-sensible object, analysing the critical and methodological principles at the basis of their conception and their specific status, and evaluating their role in the structure of Kant’s philosophy. Firstly, I will argue that there is a tight relation between the development of the methodological principles of the critique and the distinction between appearances and things in themselves. I will reconstruct the historical and theoretical premises of this distinction, focusing on pre-critical writings, both published, like the Nova Dilucidatio (1755) and The Only Possible Argument (1763), and unpublished, and considering the works that influenced the most Kant’s reflection, like Wolff’s German Metaphysic and Baumgarten’s Metaphysic. Subsequently, I’ll examine the configuration of the concept of noumenon as presented in the KrV, paying particular attention to the III chapter of the Analytic of Principles (which, surprisingly, has received little attention by contemporary commentators), and argue it had a determinant role in the decision to rewrite some parts of the KrV in view of the publication of the KpV. Finally, I will argue that the KU presents Kant’s most mature articulation of the issue of the distinction between appearances and things in themselves, focusing on §§61-78, and particularly on §76, of the third Critique.

keywords
Kant, Phaenomena, Noumena, things in themselves, appearances, Critique of Pure Reason, Critique of Judgment, History of modern philosophy