A Study On The Argumentation Structure Of Kant's Transcendental Deduction In The Second Edition

This paper discusses “The Transcendental Deduction of Category” in Kant's philosophy.This thesis is very important,because "The Transcendental Deduction of Category" is the foundation of proving the important viewpoint of "legislation of man-made nature",which is related to the success or failure of transcendental philosophy system.Moreover,it is the focus of academic debate.Since Henrich put forward the viewpoint of "One proof,Two steps" in the 20 th century,many scholars have been involved in the debate about the argumentation structure of Kant's Transcendental Deduction,and they have different opinions.In order to solve the problem of "argumentation structure of transcendental deduction in the second edition",this paper is divided into three chapters.The first chapter combs six different versions of previous studies in detail,and shows the division basis of these six versions.In the second chapter,the differences between these versions are summarized into five subproblems,and four controversial concepts are clarified,so as to clear the obstacles for reconstructing the argumentation structure of Transcendental Deduction.In the third chapter,in accordance with the basic idea of "One proof,Two steps",this paper takes the relationship between "pure intellectual synthesis" and "image synthesis" as the basic clue,expounds the specific connotation of the two demonstration steps again,and establishes the transitional relationship between the two steps,it provides a more reasonable structure for Transcendental Deduction in the second edition.The third chapter is the focus of my paper.This structure can be summed up as follows: 1.Taking section 15-20 as the first step,this step is a demonstration including 6 specific inferences,which explains the objective validity of category to general intuitive objects;2.Taking section 21-23 as the transition part between the two steps,this part explains why category should transit from the use of general intuitive objects to the use of general sensory objects,that is to say,the objective validity standard of cognition,which is: category can provide knowledge about things only when it is applied to empirical intuition.3.Take section 24-26 as the second step,which is a demonstration including 3 specific inferences,to explain the objective validity of category to all empirical objects.Compared with the views put forward by other researchers,the structural division in this paper have three advantages.Firstly,different from the "relationship between category and intuition" as the basic clue of Transcendental Deduction argumentation by Henrich and others,my paper holds that the basic clue is the relationship between pure intellectual synthesis and image synthesis,"Category and intuition" are only two theoretical objects of Transcendental Deduction,Kant's argument about the inevitability between them is based on two ways of connection of category and object.Secondly,the existing versions of interpretation fail to determine the transitional part between the two steps in Kant's text,so they can not accurately explain the transitional relationship between the two steps and provide theoretical basis for it.In this paper,the transition part is defined in section 21-23,and the theoretical basis of this part is also clarified.At last,this paper makes a clear response to the relationship between "transcendental synthesis of imagination" and "synthesis of apprehension",which makes up for the omission of previous research in this argument detail.