Transcendental apperception and self – knowledge

The principle of 'apperception' in the division of 'transcendental deduction' of Critique of pure Reason commonly have been called the masterpiece of that division of the important book. Transcendental apperception fixes the starting point for transcendental discourse. Kant uses the term 'apperception' to refer to self – consciousness. Therefore he called the fundamental synthesis that makes experience possible and enable us to attribute all our experiences to the same self – conscious subject or I the 'synthetic unity of apperception'. The Critique of pure reason contains two distinct doctrines about the relation between the subject of apperception and the noumenal self. According to one doctrine the subject of apperception is identified simply with the noumenal or real self. According to the other the subject of apperception is distinguished from the noumenal self and from any kind of intelligible object. In this essay I shall discuss and assessment this problematic relation