Strangeness and Unity: The Synthetic Unity of Apperception according to Kant and Freud

• Authors: Leder A.
• Languages of publication: PL

Abstracts

EN

The author investigates the possibility to present Freudean psychoanalysis as a form of transcendentalism. More specifically, he examines the relationship between Freud's belief that something alien can exist in the subject - this strange element is called the unconscious - and Kantian concept of the synthetic unity of apperception. The starting point of the analysis is an interpretation of Freud offered by Ricoeur. By introducing the language of transcendental philosophy to the reading of Freud, Ricoeur has succeeded in putting to the side the question of the subjective preconditions for the emergence of meaning. Subsequently the author turns to a Heideggerian reading of Kant which offers a model justification for the view that makes the unity of 'I think' a fundamental precondition predicated by variety of aspects and identified by temporal existence. Finally he proceeds to confront the temporal condition of subjectivity with the extratemporal character of the unconscious, and refers to the critique of the metaphysical conception of time levelled by Derrida against Heideggerian metaphysics of the 'Dasein'. In the end, what initially may have seemed a paradoxical reading of Freud - namely that the unconscious springs from the most primitive intuitions of animism but at the same time is a continuation of Kant's philosophy - is borne out by his analysis.

Keywords

EN

DERRIDA; FREUD; HEIDEGGER; KANT; RICOEUR; TRANSCENDENTALISM

Discipline

• PHILOSOPHY: PHILOSOPHY

• Publisher: Polska Akademia Nauk
• Journal: Przegląd Filozoficzny. Nowa Seria
• Year: 2005
• Volume: 14
• Issue: 2(54)
• Pages: 203-220
• Document type: ARTICLE

Contributors

author

Leder A.

• A. Leder, Instytut Filozofii i Socjologii PAN, ul. Nowy Swiat 72, 00-330 Warszawa, Poland

Identifiers

CEJSH db identifier

05PLAAAA00431068