BODY AND PRACTICE IN KANT

One of the planes is placed so that the length of the body stands at a
right angle to it, he explains. This may be called the horizontal. By
means of this plane we distinguish between up and down. The two other
planes are placed in a position so that the line constituted by the upright
position of the body stands at their intersection. One of these divides the
body into two equal parts and is the ground for our distinction between
left and right. The other gives us the concept of in front of and behind. 23
Kant not only focuses on the body and its relation to an imaginary
system of co-ordinates when explaining how we produce the basic
concept (or concepts) of spatial locations, he also refers to our intuitive
capacity, based on immediate feeling, to distinguish between the location
of the different parts of our body, such as its left and right side.
71
And thus it is that the two sides of the body are, in spite of their great
external similarity, sufficiently distinguished from each other by a
clear feeling. 24
Without this awareness, Kant argues, we would not be able to distinguish
between spatial locations. So, the whole body participates in this essential
concept formation.
I think that it is particularly here, in the reference to our immediate
awareness of the various parts of our bodies, that a connection can be
seen with Rousseau and the other authors mentioned above who place
the body in the center of their theory of space. Like them Kant points to
the body in order to explain the origin of some very basic spatial
concepts. Like them he draws attention to the awareness we have of the
body and its parts. He will later add that embodied acts are also essential
for the constitution of spatial concepts.
Now, let us return to the spatial concepts originating in the
immediate awareness of the body, such as up and down, right and left, in
front of and behind. These concepts, Kant suggests, are also the ground
for other kinds of spatial determinations. When, for instance, we
distinguish between the front and back of a piece of paper, we use the
same concepts as those grounded in the immediate awareness of the
body. Even if he moves away from the body here, by discussing spatial
relations pertaining to objects outside us, the human body remains the
center of the theory. The concepts we use in order to determine the
23
Ak II: 379.
24
Ak II: 381.
BODY AND SPACE