«DEM MENSCHLICHEN VERSTANDE UNUMGÄNGLICH NOTWENDIG». ORDINI DI VERITÀ NEL § 76 DELLA CRITICA DEL GIUDIZIO

The question Was ist der Mensch? remains decisive in any reading of Kant. In § 76 of the Critique of Judgment, Kant presents the significance of the human in a very characteristic manner. Three fundamental distinctions – possibility / existence, freedom / nature, and natural mechanism / technique of nature – are here articulated as constitutive of human nature and of its mode of relating to reality. A certain Romantic interpretation has seen in the thematization of the notion of ‘intellectual intuition’ contained in § 76 the definition of an alternative way of thinking, capable of disclosing the absolute. In contrast to such readings, this paper follows Kant in his refusals on this point, placing emphasis instead on the meaning and development of the Kantian notion of truth.