BODY AND PRACTICE IN KANT

SPATIAL SCHEMATISM 199
states that in this case too some kind of embodied movement is necessary
in order to recognize the triangle as a triangle, a movement similar in
structure to the movement employed in the construction of a triangle.
Does such a movement exist? If so, what could it be? One possible
answer is that our eyes move as we observe the triangle. That is, in
observing the triangle we let the focus of our eyes pass along its contours,
and in doing this, our eyes make the required movement. The act may
take place in less than a second and it may take place without explicit
awareness, but nevertheless the movement is there. And again the
movement is similar in structure to the one we would have used if we
were to construct a triangle. 46 I take Kant’s point in the schematism
chapter to be that we recognize a perceived triangle as a triangle when
we see one, because this latter movement is the same in structure as the
one we would have used to construct one, and that this similarity is
noticed in the act of visual perception.
From his reading of contemporary theories on visual perception,
Kant was well aware that visual perception presupposes the movement of
the eyes, or at least, this was what some of these theories claimed.
Consequently there is nothing to prevent us from assuming that his
theory of schematism can be interpreted as referring to such movements
when applied to visual perception. Or perhaps we should use the term
‘acts’ instead of ‘movements’, to emphasize that to Kant perception is
something we actively perform, not just something we passively undergo.
The same point may also be applied to the third example of the
schematism chapter concerning the empirical representation of a dog.
The concept of a dog signifies a rule in accordance with which my
imagination can specify [verzeichnen] the shape of a four-footed
animal in general, without being restricted to any single particular
shape that experience offers me or any possible image that I can
exhibit in concreto. (A 141/B 180)
Interpreted according to the now established guidelines, we have here
the concept of a dog, the schema of this concept, which is the method
according to which an image of a dog is produced, and finally the image
itself. Further, Kant uses the concept of drawing [verzeichnen] in order
to describe the process of producing the form [Gestalt] of the dog.
46
Imagine, for instance, that the pupils of the observer sent out laser beams with
the capacity to make marks in some background medium. Then the movements
used to construct a triangle on this background would be the same as the ones
made when the focus of the eyes passed along the contours of an existing triangle.