The Problem of the Unity of Experience from the Transcendental Perspective
Kantian journal January 1, 2025 Anastasia A. Medova
This philosophical paper reexamines Kant's transcendental idealism by reframing the problem of the possibility of experience as a question about the conditions of its unity. Drawing on Kant's correspondence, the Critique of Pure Reason, Prolegomena to Any Future Metaphysics, and modern theories of consciousness, the author reconstructs a model of experience centered on coherence. Key conditions include the systematic unity of object properties linked to rational unity, the connectedness of experiential data through homogeneous time and space, the organizing work of a priori forms of sensing, and transcendental schemes that mediate categories and phenomena. The paper also explores unity of consciousness and self-consciousness, and the role of reason's end-goals, concluding that the transcendental affinity of phenomena and objective reality are crucial prerequisites for experiential homogeneity.