Human's Soul: An Unknown Being (An Investigation of Kant's View about Soul)

This article will try to investigate the essence of soul according to the perspective of one of the greatest Western philosophers, Immanuel Kant. Because his views are very much affected by Rene Descartes and David Hume's views, we have briefly mentioned the main points of their views: Descartes believes that soul is a contemplative and non-material essence and Hume believes that the conception of soul is a forged and unreal matter.Kant's view about soul is discussed in the two fields of theoretical and practical intellect. Regarding theoretical intellect, Kant believes that soul is an un-knowable being and his view is similar to the agnostics. According to his view, no judgments can be made about soul, even about its existence or non-existence. It can only be considered as a unifying and regulating matter that unites and regulates experience varieties and mental faculties. Kant also believes that the reasoning mentioned by metaphysic scholars to prove the existence of soul and its attributes is just a fallacy; because its middle term doesn’t have one meaning: in one premise it means transcendent and in the other premise it means transcendental. In the field of practical intellect, Kant also tries to prove the existence of some attributes of soul through moral propositions and laws but his thoughts have been criticized in two fields.