Abstract: Transcendental philosophy, that is, Kantian philosophy and Husserlian phenomenology, posits the concept of finitude to study human being. According to transcendental philosophy, human being cannot experience and know the world independent of his/her relation to the world. Recently Quentin Meillassoux has criticized these dominant projects of philosophy for their commitment to the problem of finitude. Meillassoux argues that the description of finitude, as explored by transcendental philosophy, is an oscillation between the ‘Subject’ and the ‘Object’ than a description of each in itself. According to him, transcendental philosophy has also disqualified all attempts to describe subject or object in itself. This study in the light of Meillassoux’s criticism examines Kantian philosophy and Husserlian phenomenology, which were the attempts to describe the subject-in-itself.

The study describes the problem of finitude in detail and delineates the novelty of Kant’s account of ‘sublime’ and ‘categorical imperative.’ The thesis argues, by showing the relation between phenomenology and psychopathology as a case, transcendental philosophy has tried to describe the subject-in-itself.

Keywords: critical philosophy; phenomenology; finitude; ontology; correlationism; schizophrenia; epoché; critique; translator’s dilemma; sublime; metaphor; first-person perspective; hypnagogic state.