Metaphysics, Dreams and Fiction. Kant and the Specters

Abstract

This article aims to present in general lines the development of the theory of spirits undertaken by Kant in the text The Dreams of a Visionary Explained by the Dreams of Metaphysics, published in 1766, with its epistemic consequences. The central point is the optical scheme that Kant uses to explain the phenomena of communication with spirits and its relationship with the scheme of visual perception itself, as well as the spectral projection devices used in spiritism shows and seances. Furthermore, our hypothesis is that the Kantian text is part, due to its style and theme, of the wave of publications on visionaries, apparitions, and phantasmagorical spectacles, which gained volume from the last decades of the eighteenth century.