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

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ecause <strong>in</strong> actuality the subject is always already situated <strong>in</strong> this material space – which it<br />

nonetheless must be – but because the conditions for the possibility <strong>of</strong> the ―I th<strong>in</strong>k‖<br />

assumes an undeterm<strong>in</strong>ed empirical <strong>in</strong>tuition that elicits the act <strong>of</strong> thought called<br />

―orig<strong>in</strong>al attribution.‖ Know<strong>in</strong>g that space <strong>and</strong> time are a priori forms <strong>of</strong> <strong>in</strong>tuition, the<br />

possibility <strong>of</strong> this orig<strong>in</strong>al attribution assumes already the necessity that its content be a<br />

spatio-temporally conditioned material manifold. Otherwise, it would never be able to be<br />

given <strong>in</strong> the first place. Kant‘s Len<strong>in</strong>grad reflection, moreover, expla<strong>in</strong>s the way <strong>in</strong> which<br />

it is possible to account for this complex function <strong>of</strong> space: a necessary form <strong>of</strong> outer<br />

sense that allows for the possibility <strong>of</strong> outer affection, yet posited a priori through a self-<br />

affection that constitutes it <strong>in</strong>to an object that can be given to the subject knower <strong>in</strong><br />

experience. This same necessary possibility <strong>of</strong> outer affection, moreover, gives the<br />

subject a spatial location <strong>and</strong> opens the question as to the necessity <strong>of</strong> the embodiment <strong>of</strong><br />

this subject.<br />

Due to this analysis <strong>of</strong> the conditions <strong>of</strong> the ―I th<strong>in</strong>k,‖ Kant elaborates upon the<br />

relationship between the sensible ―I‖ <strong>and</strong> the th<strong>in</strong>k<strong>in</strong>g ―I‖ that had been left<br />

underdeveloped <strong>in</strong> his earlier work. <strong>The</strong> key to this development resides <strong>in</strong> the<br />

acknowledgment <strong>of</strong> the role <strong>of</strong> a ―sens<strong>in</strong>g I.‖ Just as the spatio-temporal form <strong>of</strong> the<br />

undeterm<strong>in</strong>ed empirical <strong>in</strong>tuition becomes necessary, so does the <strong>in</strong>teractive nature <strong>of</strong> the<br />

faculty <strong>of</strong> sensibility as capable <strong>of</strong> receptivity. This means that the subject‘s embodied<br />

<strong>and</strong> liv<strong>in</strong>g nature is also brought <strong>in</strong>to the fold <strong>of</strong> receptivity. <strong>The</strong> body is both passive<br />

channel <strong>and</strong> <strong>in</strong> active relationship to the whole <strong>of</strong> the posited manifold. In fact, it must be<br />

so. Without the latter possibility, no arousal <strong>of</strong> the other facultative acts would be<br />

possible at all. <strong>The</strong> content is not just a field <strong>of</strong> dynamic forces, but ―sensible space.<br />

172

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