DAS PARALOGISCHE DER KANTISCHEN PARALOGISMEN

This essay examines the development of Kant’s critical project and argues that his mature conception of the I as a phenomenal subject emerged only in the final years before he wrote the first Critique. It offers a focused interpretation of the first paralogism of rational psychology. The essay contends that the argument for substantiality in the A-edition is valid and commits Kant to defending the I as a phenomenal substance. It then shows that in the B-edition Kant shifts from an object-centred account to a subject-centred, formal or logical account of the I, thereby strengthening his position. The essay concludes that the failure of rational psychology does not stem from a lack of intuition of the self, as in Hume’s case, but from the absence of a concept capable of expressing the I in its subjective, logical form.