Abstract Self-consciousness was the central topic in German Idealism. Kant and Fichte conceived of self-consciousness as a special form of knowledge. Lotze opposed Kant’s and Fichte’s epistemic treatments of self-consciousness. According to Lotze, self-consciousness constitutively involves feeling. This chapter provides a reconstruction of Lotze’s under-researched affective theory of...
AbstractHermann Lotze argued that the fact that consciousness simultaneously “holds objects together as well as apart” such that they can be compared implies (a) that there is a simple thinker and (b) that consciousness is an ‘indivisible unity.’ I offer a reconstruction and evaluation of Lotze’s Argument from Comparison. I contend that it does not deliver (a) but makes a good case for (b). I...