Premium
A Wolff in Kant’s Clothing: Christian Wolff’s Influence on Kant’s Accounts of Consciousness, Self‐Consciousness, and Psychology
Author(s) -
Dyck Corey W.
Publication year - 2011
Publication title -
philosophy compass
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.973
H-Index - 25
ISSN - 1747-9991
DOI - 10.1111/j.1747-9991.2010.00370.x
Subject(s) - consciousness , philosophy , soul , epistemology , doctrine , context (archaeology) , antecedent (behavioral psychology) , psychology , theology , social psychology , paleontology , biology
In attempts to come to grips with Kant’s thought, the influence of the philosophy of Christian Wolff (1679–1754) is often neglected. In this paper, I consider three topics related to Kant’s philosophy of mind, broadly construed, where Wolff’s influence is particularly visible, namely, consciousness, self‐consciousness, and the doctrine of the soul or psychology. I argue that within this context we can better understand Kant’s particular arguments and positions, and gain a more accurate sense of which aspects of Kant’s accounts derive from the antecedent traditions and which constitute genuine philosophical innovations.