A Study Of Kant's Transcendental Ego

Transcendental ego is the most important concept in Kant's the critique of pure reason. In domestic and foreign, the research of Kant's transcendental ego has many monographs and papers, but most of did not divide different levels about the concept of the transcendental ego. In this article, the concept of the transcendental ego is divided into four levels, we use the framework of the four levels to analyze 'transcendental deduction of the category', which is not only the most important chapters but also the most concentrated on transcendental ego part in Kant's the critique of pure reason.In the first chapter, we mainly study the concept meaning of the transcendental ego,which neither involve the thing-in-itself nor the phenomenon. It just means that there is a transcendental self-consciousness with all of our knowledge all the time, which is the precondition of the possibility of all experience knowledge. It lay the foundation for all experience knowledge, including the empirical knowledge and the empirical ego.In the second chapter, we mainly study the function meaning of the transcendental ego, it means that the formation of all knowledge is due to the function of its original synthetic unity; In the first place, we clarify the “apperception original synthetic unity”and “ categories ” in turn; Then, we focus on how the original synthetic unity of the transcendental ego constitute the empirical knowledge.In the third chapter, we mainly study the effect meaning of the transcendental ego,which promulgates innate laws for nature by categories, namely “the intellectual make a legislation for nature”. First, we discuss that the function meaning of the transcendental ego turn to the effect meaning; Secondly, we discuss how the intellectual can as the legislation of nature; Thirdly, we analyze the finiteness of the effect meaning of the transcendental ego.In the fourth chapter, we mainly study the basis of transcendental ego, i.e. there is a unknowable ego-in-itself as its support. First of all, we clarify the phenomenon and thing-in-itself; Secondly, we make a deep investigation, which shows the transcendental ego is not as a phenomenon, nor as a thing-in-itself, but as a really existent something; In the final, we analyze that the ego-in-itself can be as the basis of the transcendental ego.