Abstract

Immanuel Kant is recognized mainly for his critical examination of reason, his transcendental account of cognition, and his post-critical metaphysics of nature and morals. However, he also developed a lecture course on "anthropology" or the study of human nature, which he eventually published as the Anthropology from a Pragmatic Point of View . In this thesis I provide a general interpretation of this text, and a more specific discussion of the relation between his account of the human cognitive faculties in the Anthropology and his examination of the transcendental faculties of cognition in his philosophical works. ;In my general interpretation I argue that the Anthropology combines elements of three interrelated projects: a "transcendental anthropology" or study of the a priori principles of human cognition and volition; an empirical anthropology based upon introspection and observation; and a practical anthropology which includes both "pragmatic anthropology" and "moral anthropology." I also provide an account of the history of the text: including its various editions, translations, related material in Kant's writings, and other resources for its study. ;In my comparative study of the cognitive faculties as considered in the Anthropology and in the critical philosophical works I argue that Kant presents a "two-aspect" view of the various faculties of human cognition, as including both an empirical and a transcendental dimension. I then trace this two-aspect view through his account of consciousness and self-consciousness, sensibility, imagination, and the understanding. In each case I consider Kant's account of the transcendental aspect of these faculties as it emerges in his critical and anthropological writings, his examination of their empirical aspects in the Anthropology, and finally his account in the Anthropology of their possible disorders and methods for their improvement. ;Finally, I also consider several unique passages in the Anthropology which might be regarded as challenges to the content and boundaries of Kant's own critical project: especially his examination of language and sign-cognition; his further discussion of temporality as divided into past, present and future; and his account of "wit" or ingenuity