Strawson and Schaumann on the Metaphysics of Transcendental Idealism

Abstract

The paper is a limited defence of one of P. F. Strawson’s least popular declarations about the nature of Kant’s transcendental idealism. An attempt is made to relate Strawson’s reading to an interpretative controversy that emerged in the years immediately following the publication of the first edition of the Critique of Pure Reason in 1781. Johann Christian Gottlob Schaumaim, an otherwise unremarkable figure, is considered as an early defender of the thoroughly idealistic interpretation in the distinctive form articulated by Strawson.