The Unity of Understanding: A Study in Kantian Problems Book

This is an analysis of Kant's account of human understanding—of our capacity to form concepts of, and to be conscious of, things in the world. Schwyzer argues that the conditions which Kant sets forth for understanding—conditions about the autonomy of thought, and about the relation of concepts to objects and of language to experience—cannot be satisfied within his overall picture of understanding as representing something to oneself. If Kant's conditions are to be satisfied, Schwyzer argues, understanding must be seen not as a capacity for mental representation, but as a capacity for action.