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

The path taken to arrive at a basic figuration of the character of the human being
– an approximation made possible once the subject is theoretically understood as part of
the concrete physical world – was one that started with the concept and function of god.
In the analysis of the concept of Setzung or positio, the meaning was found to be at the
heart of a philosophical project to ground a notion of inner possibility that did not reduce
existence to a predicate. Within it, god played the role of the necessary source of the data
for thought. Without such data, there could be no content for predicates, which in turn
disallowed any possibility for judgments, concepts and the application of the principle of
contradiction. In a proof that was constructed around the notion of a material element of
possibility, an absolute existence was necessary for the possibility of any thinking at all.
Moving onto the analysis of the concept of positing or Setzen in the KrV, the role of
source, although not origin, of the data for all thinking was taken up by space and time as
forms of intuition. Without these a priori forms, the relationship between the given and
thinking could not be secured, and without the assurance of such synthesis, the necessity
of possibility – now grounded on the subject – would not be established. The notion of
positing, however, disappeared in the strong sense of the word. In the KrV, absolute
position could no longer be accounted for despite reason‘s orientation towards the
unconditional. The meaning of the concept was transferred onto the object of cognition;
in this way the necessity of the possibility of the actual became relative to the subject.
The function of the concept, moreover, appeared within the context of the relationship
between thinking, synthesis, and intuition. In the cases of both space and time, positing
appeared as an act through which a self-affection of the subject was signified. This was
an affection that took place upon these necessary a priori forms of intuition, becoming
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