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

object that steht knowledge entgegen, der Gegenstand. Instead, we determine the form of the
object. In this sense, transcendental idealism is an account of knowledge as representation, that
is, as re-presentation of the matter by means of forms. Kant calls these representations
appearances. Thus “appearances are only representations of things which are unknown as regards
what they may be in themselves” (CPR B164). That knowledge takes the form of representation
in fact carries important consequences for the thing in itself.
Representational knowledge commits itself to the existence of that which is represented
and that something is the thing in itself. Karl Ameriks recognizes this point in Interpreting
Kant’s Critiques: “ultimately Kant has in mind the thought that whenever he goes so far as to
understand something as an appearance in the transcendental sense of a mere appearance…he is
taking this also to imply the existence of something that is truly a thing in itself and not a mere
appearance…[T]hroughout Kant's discussions, the notion of a thing is always basic, and the
notion of a mere appearance is to be understood as derivative, as something introduced because
of a feature that cannot sustain the status of being a proper characterization of the thing
simpliciter” (Ameriks 34). But that is not all. Representational knowledge commits itself to the
existence of the thing in itself understood as the object that steht that knowledge entgegen, der
Gegenstand. For this reason, Kant calls this thing in itself the transcendental object. “Now, also,
we are in a position to determine more adequately our concept of an object [der Gegenstand] in
general. All representations have, as representations, their object [ihren Gegenstand].
Appearances are the sole objects which can be given to us immediately, and that in them which
relates immediately to the object [der Gegenstand] is called intuition. But these appearances are
not things in themselves; they are only representations, which in turn have their object [der
Gegenstand]– an object which cannot itself be intuited by us, and which may, therefore, be
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