BODY AND PRACTICE IN KANT

RATIONALITY AND EMBODIED PRACTICE
served as a further inspiration for what I have called Kant’s pragmatic
theory of embodied rationality.
3.6 Kant’s theory of the understanding
It is time to return to Kant’s theory of rationality. I will first give a brief
recapitulation of what I have called his cognitive theory, that is, his
theory of the cognitive faculties and processes of man as it is found in his
writings on anthropology, pedagogy and logic. Special emphasis will be
given to two of the higher cognitive faculties; the understanding and the
power of judgment. I shall then explore some passages in which these
faculties are discussed in a context suggesting that their domain of
activity is not restricted to the inner mental realm only, but that they are
also present in embodied practices. These practices are not merely
expressions of underlying rational processes taking place elsewhere,
directed by the understanding and the power of judgment. They are a
medium in which these faculties have an immediate and direct presence
in and through the practices themselves. Finally, we shall see how this
interpretation leads us to what I call Kant’s pragmatic theory of
embodied rationality, and we shall examine the basic principles of this
theory.
In the tradition of eighteenth-century philosophy it was usual,
whenever a certain part or aspect of the cognitive process was identified,
to regard it as corresponding to a specific cognitive power or faculty of
the mind. Kant conforms to this tradition when, as part of his cognitive
theory, he introduces a comprehensive theory of cognitive powers and
capacities. As we have seen, in this cognitive theory a fundamental
distinction is drawn between sensibility and understanding; sensibility
belonging to the passive and receptive side of human cognition,
understanding to its active side. Let us take a closer look at what Kant
has to say about the understanding.
Of the texts examined in this chapter, his cognitive theory is
presented most comprehensively in the Anthropology. In the section
entitled ‘On sensibility as contrasted with understanding’, Kant describes
the faculty of understanding, or the intellectual faculty as it is also called,
as follows:
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