Abstract

Which is the central problem of the Transcendental Deduction of the Critique of Pure Reason, in its two versions? Amidst the controversy of Kant’s interpreters, I focus on a common reading that can serve as a basis for a critical examination of the central problem of the transcendental deduction. According to this common reading, the transcendental deduction is supposed to prove the application of the pure concepts of the understanding to perceptions or sense data. I try to argue that there are some reasons to believe that this common reading reduces inadequately the scope of the problem of the transcendental deduction and, as a consequence, it reduces the scope of its conclusion, too. In particular, it makes incomprehensible that “the categories are not restricted in thinking by the conditions of our sensible intuition” and, as such, may have a legitimate role in non-empirical contexts, such as it is required in Kant’s theoretical and practical philosophy.