Constitution of reality and otherness of thought

Abstract

The crucial problem this article will address is that of the distinction between the phenomenon and the noumenon in Kant’s transcendental philosophy. The departurepoint in addressing this problem is the thesis according to which the phenomenal reality is constructed through the subtraction of the real, the Thing in itself, next step being the determination of points in the constituted reality at which traces of the subtracted real can be detected. In posing the key question of this article in these terms, the author demonstrates that, following a series of differenciations, the trace of the subtracted real can be detected within the transcendental philosophy in a specific type of the subjective representations: the subjective-objective representations. The most elaborated form of these represenations can be found in Kants third Critique while in the first Critique they find their place in the Transcendental dialectics.