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

experience by means of the cognitive resources operative within it.
Following is an overview of Kant‘s use of the concept. The meaning is elucidated
by tracing the concept‘s definition and function in some of Kant‘s pre-critical writings as
well as in the KrV and KU. The result is a conceptual map of its predominant
philosophical significance within his theoretical philosophy prior to the Op. 30
While Setzung refers to a basic (but essential) logical function, in Kant‘s pre-
critical work this logical meaning finds itself embedded in a richer philosophical one,
inextricably connected to that of existence: it is synonymous with Sein, thought of as
either copula in a possible judgment or Dasein. 31 It thus concerns affirmation in an
ontological or transcendental sense, expressing different modalities of being in general. 32
One first finds this term defined in Kant‘s pre-critical text Der einzig mögliche
Beweisgrund zu einer Demonstration des Daseins Gottes (henceforth BDG), where the
30 This project is limited to the theoretical side of the Selbstsetzungslehre. As a
consequence, this chapter lacks references to the usage of setzen in Kant‘s practical
philosophy.
31 T. Trappe writes in his entry in the Wörterbuch der Geschichte der Philosophy (Bd 9:
Se-Sp) that the term‘s philosophical significance in the history of philosophy begins with
Kant. However, if one looks to the entry for ―Positiv,‖ which derives from the Latin
positum and ponere, then it does appear to have been embedded in philosophical meaning
before. For instance, Setzung appears as the opposite of ―nature‖ (in the sense of
constituted); opposite to ―negativ‖ (in the sense of seiend or affirmation); in the context
of discussing the nature of the reality of the divine and human in Christ; and of the
method of ―Positive Theology‖ (Bd 7: P-Q). In Caygill‘s A Kant Dictionary the term has
no entry. The same is the case for Eistler‘s French edition of the Kant-Lexicon, although
interestingly enough, a possible translation of the term setzen, or the English to posit, is to
postulate. To postulate or postulates is a technical term is Kant‘s theoretical philosophy,
used in the KrV in relationship to his discussion of the principles of modality – thus very
much in the keeping with the terms of the discussion that follows. Cf. KrV, B200; B265;
and B289.
32 Transcendental in both the traditional sense of metaphysical, but also applicable to the
more restricted meaning it takes on later in Kant‘s critical philosophy.
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