From phenomenon to regulatory function: God as the ideal of pure reason in Kant

Abstract

In this article, we want first to explore the critical investigation undertaken by Immanuel Kant on the human capacity to know, that is, to obtain universal and necessary knowledge. We then seek to demonstrate how, by delimiting the legitimate use of reason, Kant reopens the great philosophical questions from a new perspective: that of the ideal of pure reason. This ideal does not belong to the domain of phenomena or understanding, but operates as a regulatory idea, which guides thinking without offering itself as an object of knowledge. The idea of ​​God, in this context, constitutes the supreme element of this ideal: it is not a reality that we can know, but an internal requirement of reason to guide and unify knowledge. Thus, we want to know how Kantian thought allows us to reflect theoretically on the place of God within reason itself, as its maximum and regulatory horizon.