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The Problem of Personal Identity in Kant's Philosophy⑴: Focus on the contrast to Wolff

Choo Kyo jun 1

1전남대학교

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ABSTRACT

In this paper, I will identify what Kant criticized Wolff for on the issue of personal identity and what he inherited from Wolff. Based on this, I will identify what Kant considered important in his discussion of personal identity. To this end, I will first look at the discussion of the identity of persons in Kant's Critique of Pure Reason. Kant criticizes the rational theory of the soul of his time as follows: An error occurs when the subjectively unavoidable proposition 'I think' is applied to all rational beings. He also criticizes the question of personal identity as follows. Although I can only be conscious of my own identity, it is an error to over-interpret that all rational beings have self-identity. To confirm the validity and importance of Kant's argument, I will examine in detail the discussion of personal identity in Wolff's German Metaphysics. Wolff argues for a human soul that is conscious of self-identity in the context of soul immortality. And based on the consciousness of self-identity, this soul can take responsibility for its own free moral actions as a person. This personal identity is part of the order of this world that reflects the perfection of God, and people with personal identity are ultimately connected to the perfection of God by pursuing perfection of behavior as members of this world. In Wolff's discussion of personal identity, Kant argues that the only thing that is certain is the consciousness of my own identity, and that the identity of the human soul in general cannot be known. Nevertheless, he leaves open the question of the moral conduct and responsibility of the person, that is, the possibility of practical meaning for the person. Kant's task now is to ask, "What does it mean, then, to understand person practically? Now we can see that this question is the starting point for revealing the meaning of person in Kant's moral philosophy.

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