The final kingdom

Alphonso Lingis

pp. 11-25

in: Harold Durfee, David T. Rodier (eds), Phenomenology and beyond, Berlin, Springer, 1989

Abstract

For Kant there is a power to conceive the universal in our thought, but this power is activated only because it is obligated to think. The mind has the power, but not the inclination, to conceive the universal. Rather, the universal is its law. Law is a fact. As soon as there is thought, thought discovers the fact of law, within itself. Thought thinks under command. To think is to obey. As soon as thought exists, as soon as thought thinks, it finds itself already subject to law, and already obedient. It is commanded to form representations of the universal, to form representations of concepts and of principles.