Kant's Concept of the Self

in this lecture i will briefly explain the nature and dynamics of the self according to immanuel kant but it must be noted at the outset that khan's concept of the self is very difficult to systematize because in the first place kant himself did not fully develop this concept this is partly because khan's concept of the self serves only as the foundation of his moral theory in fact for the human person as a rational moral agent is the sole basis in determining the truth of the categorical imperative indeed behind the formal ethical facade of khan's categorical imperative is the attempt of the human person to achieve moral perfection hence we can surmise that the ultimate goal of khan's moral teachings is for the human person to become morally perfect and for this reason it can be argued that anybody who wants to study kantian ethics should first and foremost understand the philosopher's concept of the self as the anthropological basis of his moral teachings and so how does view the self well according to the human person has a nature namely homo numenon and homo phenomenon on the one hand the term nominan which is derived from kahn's epistemology refers to the essence of things for kant the numenon is the thing in itself thus dengan sikh according to kant the numenon cannot be known because as the essence of things it is beyond experience for example as would have us believe we cannot know the tableness of the table or that which makes a table really a table later on hegel argues that there is no such thing as thing in itself or the tableness of the table for hegel what reason knows is all there is to know on the other hand the term phenomenon according to refers to the thing as it appears to the observer in other words the phenomenon is the empirical part of a thing it is indeed that part of the thing that can be experienced by humans the hardness texture color and shape of a table are all that we can know about the table for they are the phenomenal aspects of the table for kant therefore everything that exists has two natures namely the non-empirical part or the numenon or essence and the empirical part or the phenomenon applied to humans the homonominone for is the god-like self of the human person which comprises the psychological state and intellect while the homo phenomenon is the merely human self or simply the physical self now it is important to note that when it comes to kantian ethics the phenomenal self is dropped from the equation this is because the homophenomenon is the animal or instinctual aspect of the human prison therefore it cannot be put under moral obligation just think for example of how ridiculous it is to sue a cat for stealing your food so when it comes to kantian ethics we only talk about the homo numenon or the god-like self however the phenomenal self is equally important if we talk about the self in itself because one cannot be a complete self without it in fact according to we humans have both an inner self and an outer self which allow us to become conscious this is because the inner self comprises our psychological state and rational intellect while our outer self comprises our senses or other instinctual functions again it is just that when it comes to ethics kant focuses only on the nominal self for the same reason already given now if the homo phenomenon cannot be put under moral obligation kant says that the human nominon or the nominal self or god like self can be put under moral obligation simply because it is the self that is endowed with freedom the homo nominon or the nominal self therefore is a free agent and it is this very idea of freedom that the nominal self is said to have absolute inner worth a value which is beyond any price and which demands respect as a free agent kant says that the nominal self has two aspects namely free choice and will on the one hand free choice is understood as the capacity of the self to act without being determined to do so by any external material forces on the other hand will is the capacity of the self to set forth unconditionally binding moral laws so with free choice the human person and it must be noted that in content philosophy when we say the human person we mean the nominal self can do whatever she wants to do however even if the human person can do whatever she wants to do she may not always do whatever she wishes because of the self-imposed moral law promulgated by the will for instance because of free choice the human person is free to lie but because the will promulgated the moral law not to lie then the human person or the self has to always tell the truth this now brings us to the idea that being true to oneself is for respecting one's self and for it is our duty to respect our own self because doing so is respecting humanity at the same time this implies that if we violate our duty to respect our very own selves then we fail somehow to give humanity the same respect it demands a concrete example of respecting oneself is not to harm it by say not drinking too much alcohol or committing suicide needless to say drinking too much alcohol will harm the body which in the long run will ruin the entire person in the case of suicide if one kills herself she is not only undermining her own absolute inner worth but also the absolute inner worth of the entire human race now kant believes that the nominal self is the idealized person who is distained to be perfect since she has in herself the god-like nature as belonging to the world of understanding logically then we can infer that for the nominal self is the human person's real self it is indeed the person's true self since we have this godlike self kant believes that it is our duty to attain perfection by actualizing this god-like numenal self and according to we can attain perfection or we can actualize our god-like self by developing ourselves into moral persons which can be done by obeying the command of the categorical imperative but how does the human person actualize her true self if she cannot know her nominal self well the phenomenal self can provide us the key since the human person cannot know her nominal self then she must take into account the fact that part of herself belongs to the phenomenal world that she has a phenomenal self a physical body so to speak as already mentioned this is the self that can be experienced by the senses we can touch it see it smell it we can even taste it if we like in this way the human person can have an idea of her nominal self in simple terms the body which is the seat of reason or intellect allows the self to think analyze understand and interpret reality the phenomenal self therefore serves as the springboard for the actualization of the numeral self lastly because the phenomenal self always appeals to desires which according to kant is the source of errors it has to be guided by a moral principle based on reason thus the human person as a rational being must also consider herself as belonging to the intelligible world if she hopes to attain perfection this is where the categorical imperative comes in as tucker argues the nominal self tries to actualize its godlike nature as their real self by obeying the dictate of reason through the categorical imperative

Channel: PHILO-notes

Views: 61,960

Keywords: Immanuel Kant's Concept of the Self, Immanuel Kant's philosophy of the self, Immanuel Kant's idea of the self, Kant's Concept of the Self, Kant's idea of the self, Kant's philosophy of the self, Kant Understanding the self, Kant definition of self, understanding the self Kan, understanding the self Immanuel Kant, philosophical perspective of the self Kant, philosophical perspective of the self Immanuel Kant, understanding the self philosophers, Kant philosophy about the self

Id: rNtrwtyJxb0

Length: 12min 4sec (724 seconds)

Published: Sat Sep 26 2020