BODY AND PRACTICE IN KANT

36
THE EMBODIED MIND
such as extension and impenetrability. Imagine now a simple being
endowed with reason, Kant continues, thereby introducing a definition
of spirit well-known to rational psychology. If such a simple being were to
be placed inside this same space, would we then have to remove some of
the matter already in there? And if so, could we then continue to replace
matter with spirits until the whole space was filled with spirits instead of
matter? And if this were possible, what would this cubic foot of space be
like then? Would it still offer resistance if we tried to insert a material
object into it? If that were the case, would it not then be indistinguishable
from a cubic foot of matter?
Between the lines Kant lets it be understood that the whole idea of
replacing matter with spirits is absurd. However, he asks, if it is absurd,
how can we then explain that the human mind, which we assume is a
spirit, interacts with physical entities, such as the human body to which it
belongs? If we subtract from the human mind all the essential features we
ascribe to matter, such as the capacity to fill a space and to offer
resistance, how can we then explain its interaction with the body?
Then the argument takes a somewhat unexpected direction. There
are several features of our experience that it is hard to explain, he tells us.
The impenetrability of matter is one example. Experience teaches us that
matter offers resistance, but we cannot explain how it is possible for it to
do that. The impenetrability of matter is acknowledged [erkannt], but
not understood [begriffen]. 68
We become aware through experience, that those things that exist in
the world, and which we call material, possess such a force; the
possibility of this, however, can never be understood. 69
Kant’s point in the last passage is that there are phenomena in the world
that we experience as real even if we cannot fully comprehend them.
This idea of a limit to the human understanding is then presupposed
when Kant returns to discuss the communion of mind and body: It is
possible that spirits may be present in space and may communicate with
material bodies, even if we cannot understand how this communication
takes place, he states.
68
Ak II: 322.
69
Ak II: 322 (a.t.). My translation here differs from the Cambridge edition. Here
is the original: ‘Denn nur durch die Erfahrung kan mann inne werden, daß
Dinge der Welt, welche wir materiell nennen, eine solche Kraft haben, niemals
aber die Möglichkeit derselben begreifen.’