Making sense of Kant's theory of meaning

OROÑO, MATÍAS

Lisboa

Congreso; IX Multilateral Kant Colloquium; 2021

Centre of Philosophy. University of Lisbon (Portugal)

The concept of meaning (Bedeutung) constitutes one of the main ways of accessing Kant´s theory of knowledge and lays the foundations of a semantic tradition, which through different modes is projected in contemporary philosophical problems. The section of the Critique of Pure Reason known as the "Analytic of Principles" contains numerous indications on this topic. On the one hand, in the so-called Schematism chapter, Kant explicitly formulates the distinction between the objective and merely logical meaning of the categories. The objective meaning is a consequence of the reference of pure concepts to their corresponding intuitions. And the logical meaning is equivalent to the sense contained in the pure categories when allsensible conditions are abstracted. On the other hand, in the chapter on the distinction between Phenomena and Noumena, Kant summarizes the main results of the "Analytic of principles" and provides some clues about the transcendental meaning of the categories. Accordingly, categories allow us to think of the noumenal world. In this presentation, I attempt to point out that objective meaning constitutes the core of the Kantian theory of meaning, while logical and transcendental meanings emerge as abstractions based on the core of objective meaning. First, I present an analysis of the notion of meaning as it appears within the framework of the doctrine of Schematism. In the second part of this paper, I refer to the link between the transcendental meaning of the categories and the noumenal world. In sum, the "Analytic of Principles" reveals a complex Kantian theory on meaning. For that reason, it is important to underline the semantic aspects of critical philosophy. Elucidating different layers of the Kantian theory of meaning would play a significant role in the task of connecting Kant with contemporary theories on meaning and reference.