Abstract

This dissertation describes the development of Kant's transcendental idealism starting with the 1770 Inaugural Dissertation and continuing through to the 1787 second edition of the Critique of Pure Reason. My central argument is that transcendental idealism develops in response to the question concerning the relation between concepts and objects. In making this point I examine the emphasis placed on sense in the Dissertation, an emphasis demanding Kant's rejection of intellectual intuition, before moving to a discussion of Kant's famous letter to Marcus Herz. While the problem was thus exposed as early as 1772 it is only in 1781 that Kant is able to present his "Copernican revolution" in philosophy as the definitive solution. The second half of this study traces out the consequences of Kant's solution, specifically with respect to the charge of a Berkeleyan idealism.