Transcendental Arguments in the Philosophy of Mind

Mathilde Jakobsen (UCL)

Abstract

In this paper I defend the use of transcendental arguments within the philosophy of mind. I argue that we can use transcendental arguments to establish certain necessary features and capacities of the mind, given that it is the mind of a certain kind of experience. This means that as well as formulating belief-directed transcendental arguments, we can also formulate truth-directed transcendental arguments as long as they are directed at certain features of the mind. I present an argument for the unity of consciousness to illustrate this form of transcendental argument. I argue that this is a truth-directed transcendental argument which is not subject to Stroud's objection to the use of such arguments outside of an idealist framework.

 

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