Kant's transcendental and empirical psychology of cognition.
Studies in history and philosophy of science December 2008 DOI: 10.1016/j.shpsa.2008.09.012 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Theoretical or philosophical paper Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Key points | Argues that Kant distinguishes transcendental from empirical aspects of cognitive faculties, with transcendental functions configuring empirical faculties. Proposes that empirical operations can vary despite a shared transcendental structure, and characterizes transcendental psychology as an account of faculties required for a mind to be a subject of cognition. |
Abstract
One of the perennially intriguing questions regarding Kant's approach to the human sciences is the relation between his 'transcendental psychology' and empirical cognitive psychology. In this paper I compare his analysis of the a priori conditions of human cognition in the Critique of pure reason with his empirical account of the human cognitive faculties in his Anthropology from a pragmatic point of view. In comparing his approach to self-consciousness, sensibility, imagination, and understanding in these two works, I argue that Kant distinguishes between the transcendental and empirical aspects of the human cognitive faculties, and regards the transcendental functions as configuring the empirical faculties of human consciousness, or as giving them the structure that they require to become faculties of cognition. I then show that the cognitive faculties of human beings may vary in their empirical operation, even while they are configured by the same transcendental structure. Finally, I characterize Kant's transcendental psychology in the first Critique as an account of the faculties that are required for a mind to be an agent or subject of cognition, corresponding to his account of the conditions that are required universally and necessarily for something to be an object of cognition.