BODY AND PRACTICE IN KANT

72
spatial locations of such objects and their parts derive from the intuitive
body-awareness examined above.
Let us now return to how Kant begins the essay. He states that his
aim is to prove the existence of absolute space, then he proceeds to
present a theory of the embodied grounding of some basic spatial
concepts. Is there any connection here? At first sight it is difficult to see
one. The introductory claim and the following theory seem to be
seriously mismatched. The first suggests the idea of a space totally
independent of human intervention while the other seems hardly to
extend beyond the limit of the human body.
But perhaps these two perspectives are not incongruent. Perhaps
Kant’s theory of the embodied basis of basic spatial concepts is in fact
also a theory of the constitution of the concept of what he calls absolute
space. It is worth noting that whatever ideas the notion of absolute space
leads us to consider, Kant emphasizes that absolute space is not an object
of the outer sense. It cannot be observed. Rather; it is a fundamental
concept.
… absolute space is not an object of outer sensation; it is rather a
fundamental concept … 25
How do we arrive at this fundamental concept? Does it have anything to
do with the basic concepts just discussed, i.e. those originating in the
body? Kant does not say but his silence allows us to suggest that it has.
More precisely, it is possible that the concept of absolute space is based in
some way or another on our primitive capacity to determine spatial
locations relative to our body, and that this is how Kant conceives of the
matter in Directions in space.
How does this conceptual movement from the body to the idea of
absolute space take place? As Kant does not supply the answer to this
question, we can only guess. We have seen that according to Kant the
basic spatial concepts of up and down, right and left, in front of and
behind originate in our immediate awareness of the body and its parts.
Later, he argues, these concepts are also used to decide the spatial
relations of external objects and their parts, for instance the front and
back of a piece of paper. Somehow he seems to think that these concepts,
with their subjective origin, may be used to decide the objective relations
between objects and their parts. Metaphorically, we may speak here of a
movement from a subjective origin towards a more objective use of the
25 Ak II: 383.
BODY AND SPACE