The Notion Of Apperception throughout Modern Philosophy : a Diachronic Review Focusing on Descartes, Leibniz and Kant ; Pojam apercepcije kroz period Moderne Filozofije : povijesni pregled usredotočen na filozofski doprinos Descartesa, Leibniza i Kanta

In this thesis, I exhibit the emergence of the concept of consciousness (and self-consciousness) through René Descartes’ Cogito ergo sum argument. After a brief discussion about this argument and its significance, by analysing relevant background information concerning Descartes’ metaphysics, I move on to Gottfried W. Leibniz who is credited with creating the first substantial and fully formed theory of consciousness. The main topic of this part of the paper is Leibniz’s insertion of apperception - a new term for consciousness - and his understanding of the word, which I examine from the ‘Principles of Nature and Grace’ as well as incorporate into a concise breakdown of his observations on the subject in his famous metaphysical script, the Monadology. I thus demonstrate the connection between Descartes and Leibniz by integrating Leibniz’s sentiment towards the thought of the former scholar. Since Leibniz paved the way for his successors, he led us to Immanuel Kant, who developed his version of apperception: which he operated as a weapon in proving the objective validity of categories, in his notoriously complex argument The Transcendental Deduction of Categories from the ‘Critique of Pure Reason’. In this part of the paper, I illustrate the motivation and inspiration behind the argument as well as what it is designed to ascertain, in order to present Kant’s contribution to this discussion. ; U svom završnom radu, prikazala sam pojavu i razvoj koncepcije svijesti, odnosno kasnije samosvijesti, koristeći se primjerom argumenta Cogito, ergo sum Renéa Descartesa koji označava početak razmišljanja o toj temi. Zatim sam analizirala začetak prve potpuno formirane teorije svijesti za koju je zaslužan Gottfried W. Leibniz, te koji daje koceptu svijesti ime “apercepcija” pri čemu sam se osvrnula na primarnu literaturu, za početak skup pisama pod nazivom “Principi prirode i milosti”, gdje to prvi put objavljuje, a zatim i “Monadologiju”. Na “Monadologiju” se posebno osvrćem u sljedećem dijelu razrade, gdje razmatram odnos ...