The truth about things in themselves 1

Overview & Synopsis

If what we think and talk about were constituted independently of its accessibility to us, two questions might turn out to be unanswerable. First of all: How could we know anything about it? Furthermore: How could we form a bona fide conception of it, or even of its possibility? I consider two answers to the twin questions about knowledge and concept formation, by Kant and Dummett respectively. I argue that in spite of appearances, transcendental idealism and semantic antirealism share common concerns about knowledge, content and truth. Against both Kant and Dummett, I propose an argument from contingency in favor of the constitutive independence of the subject-matter of thought and talk, and of the independence of truth from epistemic constraints.