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The Doctrine of Self-positing and Receptivity in Kant's Late ...

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<strong>and</strong> from there one abstracts the different components <strong>and</strong> conditions at play <strong>in</strong> the<br />

mak<strong>in</strong>g <strong>of</strong> experience. <strong>The</strong> doctr<strong>in</strong>e beg<strong>in</strong>s with an analytic proposition, but one that<br />

expresses simultaneously <strong>in</strong> fact (Tat) the existence <strong>of</strong> the ―I,‖ which Kant describes<br />

explicitly as ―the autonomy <strong>of</strong> a priori synthetic knowledge to determ<strong>in</strong>e myself<br />

accord<strong>in</strong>g to pr<strong>in</strong>ciples <strong>and</strong> develop <strong>in</strong>to experience as a system (physics).‖ 201 With the<br />

Selbstsetzungslehre Kant moves from conditions for the possibility <strong>of</strong> experience to<br />

conditions <strong>of</strong> actual experience. 202<br />

In the next chapter, the Act der Spontaneität is to get at the heart <strong>of</strong> this activity<br />

<strong>and</strong> its role from the perspective <strong>of</strong> construct<strong>in</strong>g experience through the composition <strong>of</strong><br />

the empirical subject, that is, <strong>in</strong> its relationship to the content <strong>of</strong> the ―I.‖ Thus, <strong>in</strong> many<br />

ways, what has just been said is shared between the analytical <strong>and</strong> ontological levels.<br />

What changes is the orientation, the Act der Spontaneität is th<strong>in</strong>k<strong>in</strong>g oriented outside<br />

itself, develop<strong>in</strong>g thus what was left <strong>in</strong>complete <strong>in</strong> the account <strong>of</strong> apperception as ―logical<br />

act.‖ Thought is <strong>in</strong> search for a material element that resides outside its concept <strong>of</strong> itself<br />

as Object, or at least that would have been the formulation from the perspectives <strong>of</strong> both<br />

BDG <strong>and</strong> KrV with respect to absolute position or empirical position, accord<strong>in</strong>gly.<br />

201 Ak: 21:102-3.<br />

202 Despite Kant‘s constant critique <strong>of</strong> Descartes, there is a sense <strong>in</strong> now their accounts<br />

are <strong>in</strong> harmony: both start from actuality (i.e., meditation) <strong>and</strong> move towards a priori<br />

truths or conditions.<br />

138

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