Immaterial Spirits and the Reform of First Philosophy: The Compatibility of Kant’s pre-Critical Metaphysics with the Arguments in Dreams of a Spirit-Seer

This article argues that Kant’s early metaphysics (1755–1764) remains unscathed by the arguments found in the 1766 work, Dreams of a Spirit-Seer. I expose the errors of the standard approaches to Dreams, which take the text to be either entirely opposed to metaphysics or at least critical of all present forms of metaphysics, Kant’s own early work included. Through a close reading of the text of Dreams, I show that Kant’s early metaphysics remains the standard of how metaphysics should be done, how it avoids any commitment to immaterial spirits, and what some of its actual conclusions are.