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

function of searching for the totality of the conditions by which particular objects are
made possible. In the section of the KrV entitled ―The ideal of pure reason,‖ Kant shows
the trajectory of thought that reason follows and that leads the subject to a position in
which the proposition ―God exists‖ appears justified – despite its illusory nature. While
the latter trajectory differs from Kant‘s own trajectory of the argument in the BDG, there
are nonetheless some significant intersecting moments worth noting. The thread that
connects both trajectories as they intersect is the concept of possibility, articulated from
the perspective of the ―real‖ (i.e., as opposed to the logical).
Whereas for Kant concepts of the understanding can be exhibited in concreto
when applied to appearances, (cosmological or theoretical) ideas of reason for Kant can
only regulate given empirical cognition in such a way as to enable the subject to think a
systematic unity of the totality of conditions in the sensible world. The completion of
such a totality of conditions remains a mere promise, however, as the determination of
these within given appearances can only be ―asymptotic‖ in its progress. 60 In this
process, reason may posit the existence of a ground that, outside of experience, supports
the possibility for appearances to be given to the subject – the transcendental Object.
However, just as reason is limited to an asymptotic determination of the conditions of
objects of the senses, it can only posit the transcendental Object ―as if‖ its existence were
absolutely necessary as ground for appearances. It is here that reason, in its natural
tendency towards the unconditioned, commits a subreption, transforming a critically
conceived transcendental Object into Sein in itself.
Unfortunately for the reader who is well acquainted with Kant‘s critical world,
60 KrV, A663/B691.
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