The Self-Apperception and the Knower as Agent: an Introduction to Maine de Biran’s Notes about Kant

«My dear friend, this book by […] Kant is what you should read before handling your work ». It is the year 1812 and André-Marie Ampère is aware of the several theoretical impasses with which his friend had been confronted while writing his last work, Essai sur les fondements de la psychologie (Essay on the fundament of psychology), and therefore he gives a precise suggestion to Maine de Biran: to go beyond the limits of his own philosophical tradition and to focus on the new and fruitful discussions on metaphysics. We know that, after this letter, the project of publishing the Essai was quite soon abandoned, but precisely this step in the development of Biran’s thought introduced him to his dialogue with Immanuel Kant’s philosophy. This dialogue, which was undertaken with great effort and several mistakes or misunderstandings, is often characterized by a rhapsodic unfolding and can be read only upon close scrutiny within the weave of Biran’s philosophy. We can consider as exceptions to this rule only two short texts: Note sur les antinomies de Kant (Note on Kant’s antinomies) and the denser Notes sur la philosophie de Kant (Notes on Kant’s philosophy), probably written between 1815 and 1816, which are the only instrument that allows us to reconstruct the history of this dialogue.