Kant on Pure Apperception and Indeterminate Empirical Inner Intuition
Ergo an Open Access Journal of Philosophy November 26, 2024 Yibin Liang 1 citation
Kant distinguishes between transcendental apperception and empirical apperception (inner sense), but sometimes writes that 'I think' expresses an 'indeterminate empirical inner intuition' (IEI) that differs from the intuition produced by inner sense, which threatens his conceptual framework. The paper analyzes relevant passages, evaluates major interpretations of IEI, revisits pure apperception, and proposes that IEI is a ubiquitous, nonfocal, 'obscure' empirical inner intuition built into all nonintrospective conscious states. This reading accounts for the peculiarities of IEI and resolves a major mystery in Kant's theory of self-consciousness.