Part One, Book One: On the Cognitive Faculty

Preface

A doctrine of the knowledge of the human being, systematically formulated — anthropology — can exist either in a physiological or in a pragmatic respect. Physiological knowledge of the human being concerns the investigation of what nature makes of the human being; pragmatic, the investigation of what he as a free-acting being makes of himself, or can and should make of himself.

The most important object in the world to which the human being can apply all his acquired knowledge and skill is the human being himself, because he is his own final end. Such an anthropology, considered as knowledge of the world, which must come after our schooling, is called pragmatic.

All means of extending anthropology include travel, or at least reading travel books. But one must first have acquired knowledge of human beings at home, through social intercourse with one's townsmen or countrymen.

In a footnote Kant adds that a large city, the centre of a kingdom, situated on a navigable river, with a university and with trade with foreign countries — such as Königsberg on the river Pregel — can be taken as a suitable place for enlarging one's knowledge both of human beings and of the world, where this can be acquired even without travelling. Kant himself famously never travelled more than a few dozen miles from Königsberg.

The I

The fact that the human being can have the "I" in his representations raises him infinitely above all other living beings on earth. Because of this he is a person; and by virtue of the unity of consciousness through all changes that happen to him, one and the same person — that is, a being altogether different in rank and dignity from things, such as irrational animals, with which one can do as one likes.

It is noteworthy that the child who can already speak fairly well nevertheless begins to speak by means of "I" fairly late — perhaps a year later — and in the meantime speaks of himself in the third person ("Karl wants to eat"). When he starts to speak in the first person, a light seems to dawn on him; and from that day on he never again returns to his former way of speaking.

From the day the human being begins to speak in terms of "I," he brings his beloved self to light wherever he is permitted to, and egoism progresses unchecked. Kant distinguishes three kinds of egoism: logical, which holds it unnecessary to test one's judgement against the understanding of others; aesthetic, which is satisfied with its own taste; and moral, which limits all ends to itself. Against egoism can be set only pluralism: the way of thinking in which one is not concerned with oneself as the whole world, but regards and conducts oneself as a mere citizen of the world.

Obscure Representations and the Senses

The field of our sensible intuitions and sensations of which we are not conscious — obscure representations — is immeasurable; the clear representations, by contrast, contain only infinitely few points of this field which lie open to consciousness. It is as if, on the great map of our mind, only a few places were illuminated.

Kant's interest in the unconscious anticipates later psychology.

Kant defends sensibility against the charge that it confuses, deceives and dominates the understanding: the senses do not confuse — it is we who fail to order their manifold; they do not command — they serve; they do not deceive — for they do not judge at all. Error belongs only to the understanding.

He discusses the five senses: touch, sight and hearing, which are more objective; taste and smell, more subjective. Smell is the most ungrateful and the most dispensable sense; it does not pay to cultivate it, for there are more disgusting objects than pleasant ones, especially in crowded places.

Imagination, Memory and Dreams

The imagination is the faculty of intuition even without the presence of the object. Kant discusses its play in dreams, its help and its dangers, its use in invention, and the effects of drink and narcotics on it. He considers memory, the faculty of foresight, and the "faculty of designation" — signs, symbols, and language.

Dreams, he suggests, are an arrangement of nature, which keeps the vital powers in motion during sleep: without them, sleep would be a complete death.

Genius, Understanding and Reason

Understanding, judgement and reason make up the higher cognitive faculty. A correct understanding, a practised judgement and a thorough reason constitute the entire range of the intellectual faculty of cognition. Three questions, Kant says, correspond to them: What do I want? (asks the understanding); What does it matter? (asks the power of judgement); What comes of it? (asks reason).

Wit and judgement: wit pairs heterogeneous representations; judgement distinguishes them. Genius is the exemplary originality of a subject's talent; its works are models, which others can follow but not imitate.

Kant's section on mental illness, in which he classifies forms of madness, belongs to the medicine of his day; it is not given here in detail.