Self-Consciousness in Kant's Transcendental Deduction of the Categories

A lecture given by someone named Kit Slover called "Self-Consciousness in Kant's Transcendental Deduction of the Categories: What do we Understand when we Understand?". The talk was given in 2021 at St John's College as part of the Dean's Lecture & Concert Series.

"In the Preface to the Critique of Pure Reason, Kant confesses that the 'Transcendental Deduction' of the categories is the section of his work that cost him the most effort to produce. In the centuries since its composition, it has cost his readers just as much—or even more—effort simply to understand. From its style of argumentation to its basic conclusions, this all-important chapter of the Critique remains one of the densest in the entire work. In this lecture, I will present a reading of the Deduction, hoping to make some sense of its fundamental claims and transcendental argument. I’ll focus my exposition around the activity of 'apperception'—roughly synonymous with self-consciousness—contending that, for Kant, our cognition of the objective world around us always runs in important ways through our recognition of ourselves in and through that world. Objects align with the concepts that make them what they are just by enabling us to become conscious of ourselves through our experience of them. After exploring the argument of the Deduction, I’ll attempt to make its claims more concrete by showing self-consciousness to consist in taking rational responsibility for one’s claims, beliefs, and actions—in the way Socrates tries to make us do. I will conclude the talk by using the Deduction to think about some of the most notorious questions surrounding Kant’s critical philosophy. How should we understand the so-called 'thing-in-itself?' How, and in what sense, are human beings both free and constrained by causality? I think the Deduction has some unexpected answers. The target audience for this lecture is the junior class, who will be discussing Kant in seminar for the first time, but I hope it may also be of some interest to more seasoned readers of the Critique and students who have not yet read it. "

#Philosophy #Kant #Epistemology

[alexandersuuley]

This was the best explanation of Kant I have ever heard.
Thank you 🙏

[Self-Duality]

“Transcendental deduction” —> awesome term lol

[MacSmithVideo]

I still don't understand what "i am a unity" means.

[danchiappe]

This is an excellent summary of what can otherwise be very difficult conceptual ground to cover. Thank you very much for this.

[anhumblemessengerofthelawo]

If time were not a mere linear progression, as Kant thought, but the past and future dimensions of time likewise existed simultaneous to the present, would there then now be a way to the Thing-in-Itself ?

See Dewey Larson (Reciprocal Systems Theory of Space and Time)

[henrik]

I would be careful not to conflate judgements with sentences in Kant. A sentence is a linguistic unit, language is a medium for communication. A (Kantian) judgement, however, is a logical unit and therefore a medium of thought. Language is simply the way human beings came historically to communicate experiences and thoughts, while (transcendental) logic is necessary for any finite rational being to even gain experience and form thoughts.
By mixing up the two, it is somewhat obscured that Kant's project of discovering the (logical) conditions of possibility of cognition is much more ambitious than just to develop a philosophy of language.

[anonjan]

I never heard a more lucid explanation. And the lecture avoids the use of misleading and bad examples like a space and time glasses and the like, which I always found very distracting.

[atha]

Magnificent lecture on a complex matter !

[erikroovers]

I read fragments from Kritik der reinen Vernunft on regular basis. I must say I always feel a lot better afterwards. Kant can be really uplifting.

[ewarestrd]

appreciate the Brandomian turn at the end

[rovosher]

Question: how is Chomsky’s universal grammar related to Kant’s meta grammar?

[Alex_the_Great_]

Greatest representation of the greatest philosopher in the history of humanity, kudos!

[KenshoBeats]

I always had trouble with a triangle has three sides being a priori knowledge. Let’s say your a baby, you are unfamiliar with the concept of a triangle. You will learn about this concept when you grow older. I never met a baby that knew the triangularity of a triangle from day one. Kant always has been one of my favorite philosophers but this, and a few neglected alternatives for the transcendental aesthetics I always thought to be a flaw in his reasoning. Could it be I miss something here? If so please let me know.

[rovosher]

Would Socrates understand the following sentence — Η γάτα του Σρέντινγκερ έφαγε το ιχθύς — without understanding the symbolism in the words, Schrödinger’s cat and Ichtus?

[dialaskisel]

I thought the rejection of the necessary existence of the "Thing in itself"/noumenon was a criticism of Kant by later German Idealists (like Fichte), not something Kant himself rejected... anyway, I'm probably just ill-informed, but I'm just curious. Still a very easily understandable (compared to most) and enjoyable explanation of Kant!

[languagegame]

this was excellent and extremely helpful... thank you for sharing... more KANT, please.

[daviddorsey]

Is there, A transcript of this lecture available anywhere

[languagegame]

i fucking love KANT... more, P.O... straight to the vein... kant!kant!kant!

[findbridge]

the responsibility idea as basis of self-recognition seems too abstract, though it does yield a nice account of hypocrisy

[findbridge]

brandom's responsibility idea is anticipated in a better way by Lonergan