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Kant's Concept of Appearance—I

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 February 2009

Extract

The following discussion arises out of reflection upon a number of related topics. One of these is the problem of perception, and in particular of perceptual illusion. Another is the use which has been made, e.g. by Bradley, of the distinction between appearance and reality as a guiding principle of metaphysical inquiry. But the immediate occasion of the present inquiry is the attempt to discover what Kant in particular has to say upon these and similar problems. It is for this reason that I have given the paper its title, and not because I wish to pose as an expert in Kantian scholarship. What contribution I can make to Kantian studies is only that of the outsider whose questions may perhaps suggest to the experts lines of inquiry which their very familiarity with Kant's ways of expressing himself may have led them to overlook. But the aim of the paper is not so much to discover what Kant meant as to formulate a particular view which may have been Kant's in such a way that we can judge whether it is true or not. The decision on that point, however, falls outside the scope of the present discussion.

Type
Articles
Copyright
Copyright © The Royal Institute of Philosophy 1941

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References

page 169 note 1 Cf. Critique of Pure Reason, A 251–2, B xxvi–vii. All page references preceded by A or B are to this work.

page 170 note 1 Kant's Theory of Knowledge, chap. iv.

page 173 note 1 Things and Appearances, vol. xlvi. pp. 302 ffGoogle Scholar.

page 174 note 1 Cf. A 251–2, B xxvi–vii.

page 175 note 1 Op. cit., p. 73.

page 179 note 1 A 45 = B 62–3.

page 180 note 1 On all this, cf. Price, , Perception, pp. 209 ffGoogle Scholar.

page 181 note 1 With this account of illusion cf. Price, , Perception, pp. 27, 63Google Scholar; Russell, , Mysticism and Logic, pp. 174 ffGoogle Scholar.