Is the Private Language Argument a Transcendental Argument?

Abstract

In this paper, starting from Hacker´s reading of the PLA as an extension and
elaboration of the Kantian dictum that intuitions without concepts are blind (1972,
216), which suggests a similarity of the PLA with transcendental arguments, the PLA
is compared with the Kantian models of such arguments: the
Transcendental Deduction of the Categories and the Refutation of Idealism. In
this comparison some dissimilarities between the PLA and those models are singled
out. A transcendental reading along Hacker´s lines turns out to be objectionable. It
also leaves the status of the linguistic ‘I’ undecided. Based on an assessment of the
relevance of the PLA a proposal is made as what to do instead.