From Self-Consciousness To Freedom——kant’s Theory Of Self-Consciousness

In Critique of Pure Reason, the problem of the self-consciousness has been mentioned many times, which is the key point of the whole book, particularly the Transcendental Deduction and Paralogisms. In Kant’s Epistemology, the transcendental unity of self-consciousness, that is, the unity of the apperception is an important condition for the human knowledge, and shows the human spontaneous activity. Though the problem of the self-consciousness is to be of significance in the Kant’s entire Epistemology, he didn’t give any separate discussion about it specifically in the both edition of the Critique of Pure Reason. The discussion of the problem scattered in other issues. That is why the problem of the self-consciousness has always been a hot topic for the foreign and domestic scholars. The theory of the self is an important concept in Kant’s system of epistemology, while it has too many roles to play in his system, this increase difficulty for us to understand the problem, especially the system of Kant’s entire Epistemology. I hope to reveal and explicate just the theory of the self by analysing and differentiating transcendental awareness of the self and empirical awareness of the self.Kant has discriminated two different forms of self-awareness:one as pure apperception, the other as the self cognized by internal sense. The self as the apperception, that is "I think", is an act of spontaneous unity which embodies as synthetical unity of the manifold in intuitions, i.e. the originally synthetical unity of apperception. It is the tying of the manifold in intuitions into one object before all sensuous intuitions, and the kind of uniy that Kant called apperception is the "I" which is recognized in the transcendental act of the apperception. We recognize the empirical awareness of self when we cognize our own subject only as object by internal sense. In the process, we are objectified by ourself, and the transcendental awareness of the self is the condition of the empirical awareness of the self by performing as the synthetical unity of apperception. Thus Kant separate the transcendental self from the empirical self, and further from the field of the experience. Kant’s chapter on Paralogisms is a devastating attack on the theory of immortality of the soul of rational psychology. In the system of the Kant’s epistemology, in so far as "I" as the mere formal unity of thought, it relates to its all awareness with plurality, it can be a simple substance with personal identity in idea. But for its reality,"I" am the noumenal self which can’t be cognized by us. In this way, Kant excludes the transcendental self from the field of noumenon. Then what is the nature of the transcendental self when it neither belongs to the field of experience, nor noumenon? I think Kant means to prevent us from exploring the nature of the self further in this kind of antinomy.However, the system of Kant’s philosophy doesn’t die out with end of the discussion of the transcendental awareness of the self. In fact, Kant opens a new field for the transcendental awareness of the self in the practical area. The transcendental awareness of the self is not only the ground of Kant’s epistemology, but also the starting point for subject to cognize freely in the practical area of human beings. So Kant enriches the pure transcendental awareness of the self further in the practical area. As the highest point of his philosophy, and as the unity of the theoretical reason and the practical reason, the transcendental awareness of the self coordinate the freedom and the nature.