Kant's Theory of the Self
Abstract
I must begin this paper with an attempt to
formulate what I am trying to accomplish. I dare
not and cannot make grandiose and arrogant claims
about the intent and content of this paper. I frankly find the Critique of Reason a confusing,
almost unintelligible document at times,
and I strongly feel my own incompetence at dealing
with the remarkable insights others recognize
hidden in the obscurities of Kant's labyrinthe.
So I approach my work in humility and address
this paper not to the Kantian scholar, but to
the Kantian student, who, like myself, is trying
to make sense out of the Great Morass.
It is possible to approach the Critique
of Reason with its manifold complexity and
ambiguity, as a work of art. Like an artist, Kant
possessed tremendous insights, and, as sometimes
happens in art, his structures are called upon to
carry more than they can bear. Some insights are
scarcely more than allusions, some are concretely
detailed. The insights are plentiful, in any case,
and they lead any prospective commentator in a
great variety of disconnected directions, firmly
barring the path to any single interpretation of
the Critique.