Health cannot be felt critical philosophy as a transcendental physiology

Abstract

The guiding hypothesis of this research is to show that it is possible to reinterpret Kant's thought as a whole grounded in: (1) the examination of the physiological references present in his work and (2) the reconstitution of the modus operandi of Kantian reflection, centered in the Gemüt or the set of mental faculties. It aims to show that critical philosophy can be reread physiologically, even in moments of radical affirmation of the knowledge's purity in relation to the physical and empirical, as in the case of Transcendental Aesthetics. Evidences will be given and analyzed that the physiological sources on which Kant based his construction are to be found in the work of the physician Johann August Unzer, something not noted and discussed so far in the specialized literature. Closely articulated with this physiological knowledge is the constitution of the inner core of subjectivity, located in the "mind" or the set of faculties, a notion that is linked to the "vital sentiment" or feeling of pleasure and pain. As the research intends to show, Kant's conceptualization is based here on the observations of the Baumgartian philosopher Georg Friedrich Meier, a close friend of Unzer. The historiographical and analytical reconstitution of the thinking of both these authors will make possible to present a new reading of the critical system as a whole. (AU)