Prolegomena for a Future Philosophy of Self-Knowledge: A Kantian Strategy

In the past few years, philosophical debate about self-knowledge has presented itself in a strikingly "pre-Kantian" manner. Some claimed that all sort of self-knowledge can be analyzed in the manner of the empiricists, or in terms of cognitive psychology, to use a more contemporary label, whereas, on the other hand, defenders of rationalism have not become tired to voice the notion of there being some sort of self-knowledge which must be there, underlying as it were all sorts of epistemic self-concern. It is against this background that, in my paper, I advocate what I would call a Kantian strategy to approach self-knowledge. This might not only help to settle some of the disputes, but it will also allow discussing in what sense certain instances of self-knowledge constitute an epistemic achievement.