Abstract This paper highlights the ways in which Kant engages with obscure representations (dunkle Vorstellungen) throughout his 1766 essay Dreams of a Spirit Seer Elucidated by Dreams of Metaphysics. Kant works with obscure representations at the levels of philosophical method, form, and content. First, obscure representations are implicated at the level of philosophical method, since for Kant philosophy itself involves pulling obscure representations out of darkness and into the light; second, the text itself stages obscurity; and third, obscure representations constitute the text's main content, as Kant characterizes both spirits and human-spirit communication—the text's central topics—as “obscure.” Dreams also anticipates some of the cautionary remarks he makes about obscure representations in his work on pragmatic anthropology.
Francey Russell (Wed,) studied this question.