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stankovic, sasa thesis.pdf - Atrium - University of Guelph

stankovic, sasa thesis.pdf - Atrium - University of Guelph

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ecomes its own object, and is thus itself nothing other than thinking becoming its object, and<br />

hence absolute nothing apart from the thought” (366-67). Das Selbstbewusstsein is the act <strong>of</strong> the<br />

self as an act. Fichte writes that “self and self-reverting act are perfectly identical concepts” (I<br />

462). And Schelling concludes that “what the self is, we experience only by bringing it forth, for<br />

nowhere but in the self is the identity <strong>of</strong> being and producing fundamental” (Schelling 371-2). 8<br />

Representational knowledge knows some objective self. But das Selbstbewusstsein is the act <strong>of</strong><br />

the self as an act. In this sense, das Selbstbewusstsein is the coincidence <strong>of</strong> acting and being.<br />

“For the categories are those functions <strong>of</strong> thought (judgment) as already applied to our sensible<br />

intuition, such intuition being required if I seek to know myself. If, on the other hand, I would be<br />

conscious <strong>of</strong> myself simply as thinking, then since I am not considering how my own self may be<br />

given in intuition, the self may be mere appearance to me, the ‘I’ that thinks is no mere<br />

appearance in so far as I think; in the consciousness <strong>of</strong> myself in mere thought I am the being<br />

itself, although nothing in myself is thereby given for thought” (CPR B429). Again it is Fichte<br />

who recognizes this point. “The intellect as such observes itself; and this self-observation is<br />

directed immediately upon its every feature. The nature <strong>of</strong> intelligence consists in this immediate<br />

unity <strong>of</strong> being and seeing…By being posited as intellect, that for which it exists is already posited<br />

with it. In the intellect, therefore—to speak figuratively—there is a double series, <strong>of</strong> being and <strong>of</strong><br />

seeing, <strong>of</strong> the real and <strong>of</strong> the ideal” (Fichte I 436). But it is Schelling who drives this point home.<br />

“The task, in a nutshell, consists <strong>of</strong> finding the point at which subject and object are immediately<br />

one. This unmediated identity <strong>of</strong> subject and object can exist only where the presented is at the<br />

same time that which presents…But this identity <strong>of</strong> presenter and presented occurs only in self-<br />

8 For interpretation <strong>of</strong> self-consciousness as an example <strong>of</strong> knowledge as actualization see CPR A402, B153, B157,<br />

B158, B159, B407, B408, B409, B414, B415, B421, B422, B429, B430, B431, and B432. See also Allison (1990<br />

36-7), Heidegger (254-258), Hurley (151-3), Keller (2-9), Kelly (244-8), Kitcher (380-3), Mandt (28-30), Reuscher<br />

(276-290), Walsh (185-9), and Wilkerson (51-4).<br />

132

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