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

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Chapter Four: <strong>The</strong> Ontological Level<br />

i.<br />

<strong>The</strong> representation <strong>of</strong> apperception[,] which makes itself <strong>in</strong>to an object <strong>of</strong><br />

<strong>in</strong>tuition[,] conta<strong>in</strong>s a tw<strong>of</strong>old act: first, that <strong>of</strong> <strong>posit<strong>in</strong>g</strong> itself (<strong>of</strong><br />

spontaneity)[;] <strong>and</strong> [second], that <strong>of</strong> be<strong>in</strong>g affected by objects <strong>and</strong><br />

comb<strong>in</strong><strong>in</strong>g [zusammen zu fassen] a priori the manifold <strong>in</strong> the<br />

representation to [reach] unity (<strong>of</strong> receptivity). 203<br />

Pure a priori <strong>in</strong>tuition conta<strong>in</strong>s the acts <strong>of</strong> spontaneity <strong>and</strong> receptivity <strong>and</strong><br />

by the comb<strong>in</strong>ation <strong>of</strong> both to unity the act <strong>of</strong> reciprocity… 204<br />

<strong>The</strong> second conceptual level <strong>of</strong> the Selbstsetzungslehre will be identified here as<br />

the ―ontological level,‖ which conta<strong>in</strong>s three important moments: Actus der Spontaneität,<br />

Receptivität, <strong>and</strong> Reciprocität. Each one <strong>of</strong> these moments depicts a constitutive aspect<br />

<strong>of</strong> the manner <strong>in</strong> which the subject posits itself as real, that is to say, <strong>in</strong> how it does so<br />

over <strong>and</strong> beyond a mere logical, empty thought <strong>of</strong> the possibility <strong>of</strong> such positio. A<br />

movement is effectuated from the merely logical identical judgment <strong>of</strong> apperception<br />

(cogito, sum) to a notion <strong>of</strong> apperception conceived from the perspective <strong>of</strong> its be<strong>in</strong>g an<br />

expression <strong>of</strong> an Act der Spontaneität as now the effective vehicle for the possibility <strong>of</strong> an<br />

empirical apperception. This is the case, even if at first still undeterm<strong>in</strong>ed as to the modi<br />

(sensible mode) <strong>of</strong> its real positio. As a proposition that expresses an act <strong>of</strong> spontaneity,<br />

ich b<strong>in</strong> existierend is to be understood as an empirical proposition that exhibits the<br />

203 Ak: 22:31. Förster, 173 (translation modified). Orig<strong>in</strong>al: ―Die Vorstellung der<br />

Apperception die sich zum Gegenst<strong>and</strong> der Anschauung macht enthält e<strong>in</strong>em zwiefachen<br />

Act: erstlich den sich selbst zu setzen (der Spontaneität) und den von Gegenst<strong>and</strong>en<br />

afficirt zu werden und das Manigfaltige <strong>in</strong> der Vorstellung zur E<strong>in</strong>heit a priori zusammen<br />

zu fassen (den der Receptivität).‖<br />

204 Ak: 22:32. Förster, 172 (translation modified). ―Die re<strong>in</strong>e Anschauung a priori enhält<br />

die actus der Sponteneität und Receptivität und durch verb<strong>in</strong>dung derselben zur E<strong>in</strong>heit<br />

der Act der Reciprocität.‖<br />

139

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