Abstract:
The following essay discusses Immanuel Kant’s “Entwurf zu einer Opponenten-Rede”, which treats of his colleague J. G. Kreutzfeld’s dissertation. More specifically, my aim is to analyze Kant’s view of poetical illusion, and the bond it forges between the inferior and the superior faculties of the spirit, that is, the sensibility (the senses) and the understanding. I also aim at demonstrating how, for Kant, deceit only arouses aversion, and therefore no knowledge or pleasure whatsoever; poetical illusion, on the other hand, promotes the fictionalization of the data of sensibility and enhances the role of the understanding in judging them. For Kant this is a game which the illusion plays with the spirit, and from whence the latter derives not only pleasure but also an advancement in its cognition of itself and the world. Finally, this very game is presented by Kant as the main foundation of a very singular, but above all very fertile, cooperation between poetry and philosophy.
Keywords:
Kant; Illusion; Deceit; Philosophy; Poetry