Abstract:
The following paper seeks to examine whether, from the standpoint of a transcendental idealist, it is possible to have a phenomenology that can adequately disclose the nature and activity of person. First I establish that symbols are intuitive concretizations of the activity of person/Geist, and thus symbols are available to phenom- enological description. Then I raise the question of whether reflective judgment can be understood as a part of a possible phenomenology. I come to the conclusion that yes, the process of reflective judgment is phenomenologically available; reflective judgment offers an experience of “what it is like to be a person” (meaning a transcendental process of symbol creation). However, it is clear that reflective judgment must borrow a rule from phenomenal/determinate experience in order to imaginatively analogize the transcendental creativity of person. Thus, all that is available to phenomenology is an analogy of being person, and not person itself.
Keywords:
Cassirer, Kant, reflective judgment, personalism, phenomenology, transcendental anthropology
How to cite:
Kemling, Jared. “Reflective Judgment and Symbolic Functions: On the Possibility of a Phenomenology of Person.” Eidos. A Journal for Philosophy of Culture 2, no. 1(3) (2018): 40–53. https://doi.org/10.26319/3915.
Author:
Jared Kemling
Department of Philosophy, Southern Illinois University Carbondale
Faner Hall, Mail Code 4505, 980 Faner Drive, Carbondale, IL 62901, USA
kemlingj@rlc.edu
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