康德遺留的「物自身」問題乃康德哲學及其後之黑格爾哲學以至存在主義哲學發展之中心線索。牟宗三依中國哲學將「物自身」問題從以「現象與物自身」為中心，落實為「智的直覺與物自身」；本人接着康德、牟宗三之說，轉從「存在目的與存在的同一性」說物自身，並以「反思判斷力與即活動即存在、知行合一」為中心，落實為「智的直覺與目的性原則、目的與存在」，以此思想迴旋透視「物自身」當越有客觀義、超越義、實在義，其主觀義、內在義、同心活動義、自性義越強之辯證性格；並以之為會通東西哲學之重要啟示。

The problem of thing-in-itself left by Kant is the main clue for the philosophical movement from Kant to Hegel and Existentialism. MouZongsan, grounding on Chinese philosophy, has turned the problem of "appearance and thing-in-itself" into "intellectual intuition and thing-in-itself". I, following Kant and Mou philosophy, turn to develop the concept of thing-in-itself by the way of "the identification of purposiveness and existence"; and turn the thesis of "reflective judgment versus existing as functioning and unity of cognition and practice" into "intellectual intuition versus the principle of natural purposiveness and purpose versus existence"; and via this thought circle-round, we see a dialectical character of "thing-in-itself" which has greater sense of subjectivity, immanence, concentricity and self-fulfillment as it has greater sense of objectivity, transcendentality and realism. This could be regarded as an important sign of the confluence of Eastern and Western philosophy.