Reconstructing the Critique of Pure Reason: Kant's Misdiagnosis 1

2025/05/12

How do you identify yourself from among the many human beings? The identification of others is usually done by facial features, by fingerprints in the case of the police, or strictly speaking, by genes. That is, by physical and external characteristics. Then, in your own case, is it done by mental and internal characteristics? Kant seems to have thought so. However, suppose there are four people, A, B, C, and D: A is cold, sad, and remembering the past; B is hot, happy, and planning for next year; C is warm, absent-minded, and thinking of nothing; and D is cold, sharp, and thinking about a math problem. Based on such facts, would it be determined which one is "you"? That is impossible. Whichever it is, if there is someone actually feeling it, that person is "me." In identifying which one is oneself, no human attributes—whether external or internal—are used at all. It is simply that the person who exists in the exceptional state of "actually feeling" is, in fact, oneself.

And the present is a special period in which, among the many human beings, there exists a human being in such an exceptional state of "actually feeling." This is because such a person did not exist in the past, and will soon cease to exist again. What that exceptional being is, and why such a thing arose, is a complete mystery.

When the content directly felt in reality is not temperature, mood, or thoughts, but memory, this "self" undergoes a major transformation, which is where the main argument begins; however, there is not enough space here to explain it. Those who are interested have no choice but to read the book itself. This book directly criticizes Kant's major work, "Critique of Pure Reason." While many introductory books, commentaries, and research papers have been written about such classics, it is rare for a book to be written that criticizes it head-on. However, it is also true that when being introduced to something, it is often easier to grasp the point by starting with a direct rebuttal rather than a simple commentary.

Reconstructing the Critique of Pure Reason: Kant's Misdiagnosis 1

Hitoshi Nagai

Shunjusha

384 pages, 3,520 yen (tax included)

*Affiliations and job titles are as of the time of publication.