Manuel Fiori

Anthropology and unconscious mental processes in the thought of Immanuel Kant.

My current research project concerns the statement of the problem of obscure (or unconscious) representations in eighteenth-century German philosophy, with particular reference to its reception and elaboration in Kant's work.

The investigation of this macro-theme presupposes the historical-critical definition of the complex cultural dynamics that lead to the establishment of anthropology and aesthetics as autonomous philosophical disciplines, and, in particular, as privileged spheres of elaboration of doctrines on non-conscious thought.

Hence, the need for a reconstruction of the ensuing debate and, hence, the determination of the authors who have to varying degrees influenced the Kantian position. These include, in particular, the philosophers Alexander Gottlieb Baumgarten, Georg Friedrich Meier, Johann Georg Sulzer, Johannes Nikolaus Tetens and Ernst Platner.

In addition, I am concerned with the incidence of Kantian psychology in later philosophy of the unconscious.