| This dissertation treats of Kant's doctrine of inner sense, and consists of two principal divisions: the content of the first, entitled “On Kant on Inner Sense,” also provides the context for the second, entitled “On Fichte On Self-Consciousness.” The first division exposits Kant's doctrine in the Critique of Pure Reason, and traces its continuities and transformations through to the Opus Postumum. Formal and functional aspects of the doctrine are articulated, in order to evince the centrality of the doctrine to the critical philosophy. Unpublished Reflexionen, principally Vom Inneren Sinne, are introduced in order to demonstrate Kant's recognition and attempted resolution of the aporetic aspects of the doctrine. This exegetical presentation affords the conclusion that the doctrine of pure intuition, and more precisely inner intuition a priori, obtains as the principle and problem-context for Kant's development of his philosophy. The second division will demonstrate that the same doctrine is the principle for the early Fichte's critique and development of Kantian philosophy. An exegesis of a series of texts will record Fichte's recognition and resolution of the aporetic aspects of Kant's doctrine, his identification of its central role in all synthetic cognition and self-cognition, both subjective and objective. The Aenesidemus is shown to record Fichte's intention to reconstruct Kant's doctrine of inner intuition, thereby defending the critical philosophy against skeptical critique. The unpublished Meditationen are brought forward in order to articulate Fichte's estimation of the significance of the doctrine for theoretical philosophy. On this basis, The Aporia Of Inner Sense in Kant and Fichte identifies Fichte's recognition of the aporetic aspects of the doctrine of inner sense as the motive for his rejection of his own early, Kantian, position on religion's practical status, as effected by Kant in the critiques of rational psychology and theology, by means of the doctrine of inner sense. This critical rather than doctrinal thesis contains not only the structural articulation of the doctrine of inner sense, but its significance for the philosophy of religion. |
