Kant's Theory of Illusions (1)

The author attempts to construct a comprehensive theory of illusions in Kant's "Critique of Pure Reason". Usually we focus on the transcendental illusions, namely, Kant's doctrine of the paralogisms, antinomies and ideals. Although this point of view is reasonable and has self-contained clarity, we cannot obtain a thorough-going perspective on Kant's true problem, because there are other kinds of illusions scattered throughout the entire text of "Critique of Pure Reason" : "noumena" and "reflexive concept". In addition, the author asserts that in order to understand Kant's theory of illusions fully, we must take his most important doctrine into consideration, that is, his distinction of appearance and thing in itself. In transcendental Aethetics, our initial attitude of mistaking the object as thing in itself is clarified as a kind of illusions. Kant's usage is "taking appearance as thing in itself". The author builds his point by starting here and continues the argument through noumena, "reflexive concept" and the transcendental illusions of the dialectic. The author sets forth his idea that an identical logic permeates itself along these topics