Metaphysics as a Discipline: From the “Transcendental Philosophy of the Ancients” to Kant’s Notion of Transcendental Philosophy

Abstract

The historical study of metaphysics in the early modern period — a time in which so many philosophers self-consciously rejected the kind of philosophy practiced up to their time and emphatically presented themselves as offering a new approach — is beset by several difficulties. The fact that these philosophers described themselves as developing a new philosophical approach seems to require us only to examine the immediate historical background that they claim to be rejecting; looking for continuities with earlier thought seems to be superfluous and perhaps even contradictory. When, in addition, advocates of the new philosophical approach are used by modern historians to demarcate periods in the history of philosophy — as is the case with Descartes and Kant — a division of research and of researchers arises that hinders the development of competence to deal with issues that overlap the different historical periods. Furthermore, it is no easy matter to trace the processes by which earlier thought might have been transmitted to the early modern period, and the earlier thought itself is complex and in need of interpretation. Take as an example of the difficulties involved in the historical study of early modern metaphysics, Kant’s reference to the “transcendental philosophy of the ancients”. What “ancients” does he have in mind? And did he encounter these ancients with his teachers as intermediaries or by going to the sources directly?

This paper was translated by Dr Jörn Müller (University of Bonn) with the assistance of Russell L. Friedman.