Book contents
- Intuition in Kant
- Intuition in Kant
- Copyright page
- Epigraph
- Contents
- Acknowledgments
- Abbreviations, Citations, and Other Conventions
- Introduction
- 1 Reason’s Self-Knowledge and Kant’s Critical Methodology
- 2 Synthetic Judgment and Intuition
- 3 An Apperceptive Approach to the Transcendental Aesthetic
- 4 Exposition, Conceptual Analysis, and Apperception
- 5 Infinity, Discursivity, Givenness
- 6 Prolegomena to a Stufenleiter of Kantian Intuition
- 7 A Stufenleiter of Kantian Intuition, Part I
- 8 A Stufenleiter of Kantian Intuition, Part II
- Bibliography
- Index
5 - Infinity, Discursivity, Givenness
The Intuitive Roots of Spatial Representation
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 07 March 2024
- Intuition in Kant
- Intuition in Kant
- Copyright page
- Epigraph
- Contents
- Acknowledgments
- Abbreviations, Citations, and Other Conventions
- Introduction
- 1 Reason’s Self-Knowledge and Kant’s Critical Methodology
- 2 Synthetic Judgment and Intuition
- 3 An Apperceptive Approach to the Transcendental Aesthetic
- 4 Exposition, Conceptual Analysis, and Apperception
- 5 Infinity, Discursivity, Givenness
- 6 Prolegomena to a Stufenleiter of Kantian Intuition
- 7 A Stufenleiter of Kantian Intuition, Part I
- 8 A Stufenleiter of Kantian Intuition, Part II
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
The final two Metaphysical Expositions argue that our original representation of space must be intuitive. I draw some surprising connections between Kant’s discussion and Leibniz’s account of the continuum. These connections indicate that the point of Kant’s analysis of <space> is to show that our original representation of space is infinitely complex in content. Since no discursive representation can be infinitely complex, our concept <space> cannot derive its content from discursive spontaneity. Its content must rather be given to the mind in order to be thought at all and thus originates in receptive intuition. Kant’s argument does not hinge on the singularity or holistic structure of space, as many hold, but on its infinite complexity and consequent givenness. I develop a novel account of the discursivity of conceptual representation that preserves the validity of Kant’s argument, defend Kant’s account of the infinity of space against prominent objections, and finally indicate how Kant’s argument entails the singularity of intuition (rather than presupposing it).
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- Information
- Intuition in KantThe Boundlessness of Sense, pp. 132 - 172Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2024