Transcendental Apperception in a Wittgensteinian Perspective

Abstract

The paper elaborates Powell’s functional approach to the doctrine of transcendental
apperception by making use of a phenomenological amendment of its higher order theory
of consciousness. It is argued that the private language argument fits well in the
phenomenological project. This has the advantage that the inherent ambiguity of the
doctrine of transcendental apperception, which is manifest in the way the
first-person personal pronoun is used in it, disappears.