Johann Nikolaus Tetens and Objectifying Subjectivity

Abstract

In this article, the Author investigates Tetens’ theory of knowledge starting from the problem, much discussed at the time, of the epistemological status of philosophy. By focusing on the subject-representation relationship, a key point of Tetens’ gneosological doctrine, the scope and limits of the “transcendental” approach given by the philosopher to the problem of the objectivity of knowledge will be shown: how knowledge can be objective if all our Are perceptions subjective? Tetens' answer is based on the clarification of what we understand by “objective”, on the determination of the conditions of possibility of objective knowledge, and on the derivation of the (subjective) principles on which such knowledge can be based.