The Role of Spontaneity in Paul Natorp’s Concrete Subjectivity

Abstract

This article investigates Paul Natorp’s reinterpretation of the transcendental method and his attempt to establish a theory of concrete subjectivity within his broader engagement with Kantian transcendental philosophy. Focusing primarily on Über objective und subjective Begründung der Erkenntnis (1887) and Allgemeine Psychologie nach kritischer Methode (1912), while also referring to intermediate works, it argues that Natorp reconfigures Kantian schematism by shifting the locus of spontaneity from the productive imagination to the formative activity of consciousness. In doing so, he seeks to reconcile the logical foundations of objectivity with the immediacy of lived experience, thereby incorporating psychology into the scope of transcendental philosophy.