On Kant''s "Deduction of the Pure Concepts of Understanding" in the First Edition

• Main Authors: Ling-Hsiao Chen, 陳凌霄
• Other Authors: 彭文本
• Format: Others
• Language: zh-TW
• Published: 2018
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/8k6h2q

碩士 === 國立臺灣大學 === 哲學研究所 === 106 === The “Transcendental Deduction” in the Critique of the Pure Reason (Kritik der reinen Vernunft) aims at demonstrating the a priori conditions of human intellectual capability. This is one of the major goals that German philosopher Immanuel Kant attempted to achieve. These conditions include the deductions of the time and space in “Transcendenal Aesthetic” (Die tranzendentale Ästhetik) and the categories (Kategorie) in the “Transcendental Logic”, which is the deduction of the pure concept of Understanding. However, since Kant published two versions of the Critique of the Pure Reason in 1781 and in 1787 respectively, there are two editions of the Deduction, i.e. the A-Deduction and the B-Deduction. This thesis focuses on the A-Deduction, and provides an interpretation of it. In this thesis, I shall endeavor to achieve the following two goals: 1. Demonstrate the purpose of transcendental deduction of the pure concept of Understanding. 2. Provide a detailed explanation of A-Deduction. Regarding the former, there are many interpretative controversies, and we could roughly divide them into subjective deduction interpretation and objective deduction interpretation. In chapter 4, I will argue in favor of the former, i.e., the “subjective deduction interpretation. This interpretation argues that the purpose of the Deduction is to prove that cognitions are only possible under the presupposition of pure concepts of understanding. On the other hand, according to the preface of A-Deduction, the purpose of the Deduction contains two aspects: (a) to deal with the pure understanding itself, concerning its possibility within a subjective relation; and (b) to demonstrate and make comprehensible the objective validity of the pure concepts a priori, which happens to be the essence of the second goal of this thesis. In view of this division, I shall explain the first aspect by giving an interpretation to the “threefold synthesis”. this explanation will conclude in asserting the transcendental apperception as the a priori condition of cognition. As for the second aspect, the explanation will be completed by demonstrating the reciprocity between the pure synthesis of imagination and the unity of transcendental apperception.