The Doctrine of Self-positing and Receptivity in Kant's Late ...
The Doctrine of Self-positing and Receptivity in Kant's Late ...
The Doctrine of Self-positing and Receptivity in Kant's Late ...
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elations <strong>of</strong> thoroughgo<strong>in</strong>g determ<strong>in</strong>ations, allow for the particular forms <strong>of</strong> possibility <strong>in</strong><br />
each dist<strong>in</strong>ct th<strong>in</strong>g.<br />
<strong>The</strong>se levels are not entirely unfamiliar when one th<strong>in</strong>ks back onto the BDG.<br />
S<strong>in</strong>ce both trajectories beg<strong>in</strong> from a conception <strong>of</strong> be<strong>in</strong>g <strong>in</strong> general <strong>in</strong> which existence<br />
cannot be predicated <strong>of</strong> a concept, there is a shared endeavor to re-th<strong>in</strong>k anew the<br />
modality <strong>of</strong> be<strong>in</strong>g by account<strong>in</strong>g for an element qualified as ―material,‖ ―content,‖ or<br />
―real.‖ <strong>The</strong> strongest moment <strong>of</strong> <strong>in</strong>tersection between the BDG <strong>and</strong> the section on the<br />
transcendental ideal <strong>in</strong> the KrV concerns the identification <strong>of</strong> a ―data‖ from which the<br />
concrete mean<strong>in</strong>g <strong>of</strong> predicates becomes possible. With this <strong>in</strong> h<strong>and</strong>, both texts provide<br />
accounts <strong>of</strong> the possible determ<strong>in</strong>ation <strong>of</strong> a th<strong>in</strong>g <strong>in</strong> the unity <strong>of</strong> these content laden<br />
predicates.<br />
Even as both accounts underp<strong>in</strong> the ―content,‖ ―material,‖ or ―real‖ aspect <strong>of</strong> any<br />
ground for the possibility <strong>of</strong> th<strong>in</strong>gs, what is also significant is the form by which all<br />
possible predicates <strong>of</strong> a th<strong>in</strong>g (i.e., with content) are united <strong>in</strong> <strong>and</strong> for the possible<br />
determ<strong>in</strong>ation <strong>of</strong> each particular th<strong>in</strong>g. 65 This concerns noth<strong>in</strong>g other than the<br />
―pr<strong>in</strong>ciples‖ under which this potential unity or ―synthesis‖ is made possible. In the BDG<br />
the highest pr<strong>in</strong>ciple rema<strong>in</strong>ed – despite the <strong>in</strong>troduction <strong>of</strong> a material element <strong>of</strong> <strong>in</strong>ner<br />
possibility – that <strong>of</strong> contradiction <strong>in</strong> thought; <strong>in</strong> the case <strong>of</strong> reason‘s concept <strong>of</strong> the ideal<br />
65 Klaus Reich po<strong>in</strong>ts this out <strong>in</strong> a larger argument concerned with the way <strong>in</strong> which<br />
Kant‘s own pre-critical ―dogmatism‖ fairs accord<strong>in</strong>g to the critical tenets <strong>of</strong> the KrV <strong>and</strong><br />
<strong>in</strong> light <strong>of</strong> the absence <strong>of</strong> any reflexivity on Kant‘s part (i.e., he only treats physicotheological,<br />
cosmological, <strong>and</strong> ontological forms <strong>of</strong> pro<strong>of</strong>). Sett<strong>in</strong>g aside what might<br />
have been lost <strong>in</strong> translation, my read<strong>in</strong>g <strong>of</strong> both the BDG <strong>and</strong> the KrV <strong>in</strong> relation to the<br />
ontological pro<strong>of</strong> is <strong>in</strong>debted to Reich‘s short monograph. Reich, K. Kant‘s e<strong>in</strong>zig<br />
möglicher Beweisgrund zu e<strong>in</strong>er Demonstration des Dase<strong>in</strong>s Gottes E<strong>in</strong> Beitrag zum<br />
Verständnis des Verhälnisses von Dogmatismus und Kritizismus <strong>in</strong> der Metaphysic.<br />
Leipzig, Feliz Me<strong>in</strong>er, 1937.<br />
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