Behind the Scenes of the Mind: an Attempt to Conceptualize the Types of Philosophizing Subjects

The article examines the metaphilosophical issue of the philosophizing subjects. The transcendental argument addresses the inquiry into what enables the variety of existing philosophizing practices. A conceptual model of philosophizing subjects is developed using the reconstructed Kantian model of the mind. Following this model, the article discusses marginal and mainstream types. The former comprises epigones and skeptics, while the latter encompasses dogmatic metaphysicians, scientific rationalists, relativists, and critical rationalists. In the modeling of philosopher-innovator types, the concept of maximalist and minimalist philosophies by Tatarkiewicz is also incorporated.