ABSTRACT
This chapter deals with the question of communication and communicability in Kant’s philosophy, moving from some important suggestions offered by Onora O’Neill concerning Kant’s conception of the public use of reason. Accepting the “political” nature of Kant’s critical enterprise, as suggested by O’Neill, the chapter shows the extent to which this political trait rests on epistemological presuppositions which can be found in Kant’s analysis of certain mental states. Once these presuppositions are taken into consideration, the importance of the theme of communication for Kant’s entire philosophy becomes visible. Communicability turns out to function as the touchstone or criterion for distinguishing between private and public. This main thesis is illustrated and defended by an analysis of the section “On having an opinion, knowing, and believing” in the Canon of the Doctrine of Method and some pages of the Critique of Judgment.
