Single Idea 5549

[catalogued under 16. Persons / D. Continuity of the Self / 7. Self and Thinking]

Full Idea

The manifold representations that are given in a certain intuition would not all together be my representations if they did not all together belong to a self-consciousness.

Gist of Idea

Mental representations would not be mine if they did not belong to a unified self-consciousness

Source

Immanuel Kant (Critique of Pure Reason [1781], B132)

Book Reference

Kant,Immanuel: 'Critique of Pure Reason', ed/tr. Guyer,P /Wood,A W [CUO 1998], p.247


A Reaction

Kant's 'transcendental ego' may only be a posh way of restating the Cartesian Cogito. Descartes was keen to assert not only that there must be a thinker, but also that its essence was to be unified in a manner beyond the physical (Ideas 2303 and 1400).

Related Ideas

Idea 2303 The mind is utterly indivisible [Descartes]

Idea 1400 Some cause must unite the separate temporal sections of a person [Descartes]