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Immanuel Kant’s Concept of the Self

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This lecture notes discusses Immanuel Kant's concept of the self.

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  • July 13, 2021
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  • 2020/2021
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Immanuel Kant’s Concept of the Self


I this lecture notes, I will briefly explain the nature and dynamics of the “Self” according
to Immanuel Kant. But it must be noted at the outset that Kant’s concept of the self is
very difficult to systematize because in the first place, Kant himself did not fully develop
this concept. This is partly because Kant’s concept of the self serves only as the
foundation of his moral theory. In fact, for Kant, the human person as a rational moral
agent is the sole basis in determining the truth of the categorical imperative.

Indeed, behind the formal ethical façade of Kant’s categorical imperative is the attempt
of the human person to achieve moral perfection. Hence, we can surmise that the
ultimate goal of Kant’s moral teachings is for the human person to become morally
perfect. And for this reason, it can be argued that anybody who wants to study Kantian
ethics should first and foremost understand Kant’s concept of the self as the
anthropological basis of his moral teachings.

So, how does Kant view the self?

According to Kant, the human person has a two-fold nature, namely:
1) homo noumenon and
2) homo phaenomenon

On the one hand, the term noumenon, which is derived from Kant’s epistemology,
refers to the essence of things. For Kant, the noumenon is the thing-in-itself (das Ding
an sich). According to Kant, the noumenon cannot be known because, as the essence of
things, it is beyond experience. For example, as Kant would have us believe, we cannot
know the “tableness” of the table, or that which makes a table really “a table”. Later on,
Hegel argues that there is no such thing as “thing-in-itself” or the “tableness” of the
table. For Hegel, what reason knows is all there is to know.

On the other hand, the term phaenomenon, according to Kant, refers to the thing as it
appears to the observer. In other words, the phaenomenon is the empirical part of a
thing. It is indeed that part of a thing that can be experienced by humans. The hardness,
texture, color, and shape of a table are all that we can know about the table. For Kant,
they are the phaenomenal aspects of the table.

For Kant, therefore, everything that exists has two natures, namely:

1) the non-empirical part (noumenon or essence) and

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