Full Idea
The determination of my existence in time is possible only by means of the existence of actual things that I perceive outside of myself.
Gist of Idea
I can only determine my existence in time via external things
Source
Immanuel Kant (Critique of Pure Reason [1781], B275)
Book Reference
Kant,Immanuel: 'Critique of Pure Reason', ed/tr. Guyer,P /Wood,A W [CUO 1998], p.327
A Reaction
This may be the germ of Hegel's much more social view of the self. Kant is only concerned with the question of identity across time.
Related Idea
Idea 4166 A consciousness without an object is no consciousness [Schopenhauer]