Kant’s Approaches to the Human Mind in the Critique of Pure Reason

My research aims to investigate the various approaches to the human mind in Kant’s Critique of Pure Reason (CPR) and determine how they are related to one another. I will focus on 1) Kant’s analysis of the faculties of the human mind in the Transcendental Analytic, 2) Kant’s criticism of rational psychology in the Paralogisms chapter, and 3) the rational psychology that is considered to be one of the areas of Kant’s system of metaphysics in the Architectonic chapter. In order to situate these texts, I will begin by interpreting them in light of Wolff’s psychology. Second, I will try to interpret Kant’s account of the faculties in the Transcendental Analytic without harming its normative aspect. Third, I will clarify the difference between the negative rational psychology that Kant opposes and the positive rational psychology he intended to include in his metaphysical system. Fourth, I will explore how the regulative idea of the soul in the Paralogisms guides the analysis of the faculties in the Transcendental Analytic, and what role positive rational psychology plays in the relationship between the two chapters.