La Kant´s Conception of Existence

Its Relation to the Theories of Being of Scholastic Metaphysics

Abstract

That existence cannot be a real predicate of the concept of a thing is not an original claim of Kant; it is, strictly speaking, a variation of a possible theory on existence that was already advanced by medieval and modern Scholastics. Thus, the analysis of the debates on being and essence of scholastic metaphysics allows us to better understand the meaning of the different possible approaches to the general problem of the relation between determinacy and existence. Against this historical and conceptual background it becomes possible to examine Kant's thesis on existence with new theoretical tools so as to delimit with greater precision its meaning and its difference not only with respect to the thesis of authors such as Wolff and Baumgarten, but also with respect to that of Kant's own immediate successors. Post-Kantian idealism explicitly criticizes Kant's conception of existence by resorting, in turn, to arguments that in not a few cases have also been recognized and partially developed by scholastic metaphysics.