What is Apperception? A Metaphysical Approach

Kristina Engelhard (Universität Trier)

The Digital Kant-Centre NRW is pleased to invite you to a lecture by Kristina Engelhard (University of Trier) with the topic "What is Apperception? A Metaphysical Approach". 

The lecture will take place online (via Webex) on Wednesday, 28 January 2026, from 18:00 – 19:30 CET. 

Please see below for the Webex-link and an abstract of the lecture. 

The talk is part of the lecture series Digital Kant-Lectures, organized by Digital Kant-Centre NRW, which takes place on the last Wednesday of each month via Webex. For the program of the series, please see here: https://kant-zentrum-nrw.de/en/digital-kant-lectures/

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Webex-Link: 

https://uni-siegen.webex.com/uni-siegen/j.php?MTID=m19702bbd9916d341695225bf25c51ba4

Abstract: 

In this talk, I will approach Kant's analysis of the human mind from the perspective of the German rationalist tradition, which, in analogy to the physical sciences, models the human mind as a power (Wolff) or a collection of interacting powers (Crusius). I suggest that Kant, like his contemporaries, held a specific form of powerful capacitism, i.e. the metaphysical view that the human mind is a power or collection of powers that brings about cognitive products such as representations, intuitions, judgments, inferences. Acts of cognition are manifestations of these powers. Apperception is certainly the most enigmatic, but central, component of Kant's own theory of the mind. I explore the contribution of powerful capacitism to disentangling the puzzle of apperception and the Kantian transcendental self.