This paper explicates the role of language and communication in Kant’s account of objective judgment and objective reference. I take it that the basic units of proper objective reference for Kant are objective judgments, which according to Kant are acts of relating given cognitions to other cognitions in the unity of apperception. The question is, does language play any role in this activity, or is this activity reflected in language somehow? I argue that, unlike early critics such as Herder and Hamann (and many after them) have suggested, Kant does not overall neglect language and communication in his philosophy, but rather can be taken to give an account of how it is possible to use language objectively and communicate objective judgments in the first place. Even though I do not find it a plausible view that according to Kant there is no thinking at all without or prior to language, Kant’s account does not rule out the importance of language for our thinking, judging and communicating. My claim is that Kant’s account of categorical experience as universal and necessary cognition of objects provides a ground for languages and their objective use, that is, for the possibility of objective reference in language.

中文翻译：

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康德论语言、交流和客观判断

本文阐述了语言和交流在康德对客观判断和客观参照的解释中的作用。我认为康德正确的客观参照的基本单位是客观判断，根据康德的说法，客观判断是将给定的认知与统觉统一中的其他认知联系起来的行为。问题是，语言在这项活动中是否发挥了作用，或者说这项活动是否以某种方式反映在语言中？我认为，与赫尔德和哈曼（以及他们之后的许多人）等早期批评家所暗示的不同，康德在他的哲学中并没有全面忽视语言和交流，而是可以被认为是对如何使用语言进行解释客观地并首先传达客观的判断。尽管我不认为康德认为没有语言或先于语言就没有思维是一个合理的观点，但康德的解释并不排除语言对于我们思维、判断和交流的重要性。我的主张是，康德将范畴经验视为对对象的普遍且必然的认知，为语言及其客观使用提供了基础，即为语言中客观指称的可能性提供了基础。