BODY AND PRACTICE IN KANT

166
SPATIAL EXPERIENCE AND THE BODY IN THE CRITIQUE
A 99 we learn, for instance, that the a priori representations of time and
space presuppose the synthesis of apprehension:
Now this synthesis of apprehension must also be exercised a priori,
i.e., in regard to representations that are not empirical. For without it
we could have a priori neither the representations of space nor of
time, since these can be generated [erzeugt] only through the
synthesis of the manifold that sensibility in its original receptivity
provides. (A 99, my emphasis)
Without the activity of the mind, that is, without the synthesis of
apprehension, no a priori representation of time and space would exist,
Kant claims.
5.7 Reproduction
That the a priori representations of time and space presuppose activity is
further emphasized by the section beginning at A 100. This paragraph
concerns what Kant calls the reproductive synthesis of imagination. One
of the examples he uses to explain this kind of synthesis is the drawing of
a line in thought. Here is the relevant passage:
Now it is obvious that if I draw a line in thought, or think of the time
from one noon to the next, or even want to represent a certain
number to myself, I must necessarily first grasp one of these manifold
representations after another in my thoughts. But if I were always to
lose the preceding representations (the first parts of the line, the
preceding parts of time, or the successively represented units) from
my thoughts and not reproduce them when I proceed to the following
ones, then no whole representation and none of the previously
mentioned thoughts, not even the purest and most fundamental
representations [Grundvorstellungen] of space and time, could ever
arise [entspringen können]. (A 102)
Kant seems to presuppose here that no object is ever presented to us qua
object by the senses. What is presented to us is nothing but a manifold.
He does not tell us exactly how we are to conceive of this manifold.
However, let us, like him, use a line as our example, and let us assume
that the manifold of the line consists of the infinite number of points by
which the line is formed. 12 His point then seems to be something like this.
12
This does not mean that I want to turn Kant into a kind of sense impression
atomist. Considered transcendentally, the line is not the sum of an infinite