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

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Kant‘s new transcendental idealism.<br />

<strong>The</strong> unify<strong>in</strong>g conceptual thread at the heart <strong>of</strong> Setzung <strong>and</strong> its verb reveals both a<br />

consistency <strong>in</strong> its concern with status <strong>of</strong> what ―is‖ <strong>and</strong> a capillary dispersion <strong>of</strong> its<br />

function with<strong>in</strong> this very problematic. <strong>The</strong> entire trajectory is one that is <strong>in</strong> an ongo<strong>in</strong>g<br />

struggle <strong>and</strong> negotiation aga<strong>in</strong>st a philosophical tradition <strong>in</strong> which pr<strong>in</strong>ciples <strong>of</strong> logic <strong>and</strong><br />

the representational use <strong>of</strong> concepts were seen as conta<strong>in</strong><strong>in</strong>g the sufficient resources from<br />

which to account for existence, <strong>in</strong>clud<strong>in</strong>g what for Kant appeared as the rema<strong>in</strong>der <strong>of</strong> the<br />

Sache selbst. <strong>The</strong> transition <strong>in</strong> the gr<strong>and</strong> perspective – not concern – from the pre-critical<br />

to the KrV is made explicit from a shift <strong>in</strong> the orientation from which the question <strong>of</strong><br />

existence <strong>and</strong> its modalities are approached: from Se<strong>in</strong> überhaupt to Object überhaupt;<br />

from Dase<strong>in</strong> as a th<strong>in</strong>g to Dase<strong>in</strong> as object; from an <strong>in</strong>terest <strong>in</strong> a ―data‖ that is capable <strong>of</strong><br />

be<strong>in</strong>g thought to a data that is capable <strong>of</strong> be<strong>in</strong>g given through our a priori forms <strong>of</strong><br />

<strong>in</strong>tuition; from the qualification <strong>of</strong> absolute to that <strong>of</strong> empirical or relative (qua subject<br />

knower); among others. In other words, from the transcendental ground for absolute<br />

existence to the subjective possibility <strong>of</strong> cogniz<strong>in</strong>g an object – the possibility, actuality,<br />

<strong>and</strong> necessity <strong>of</strong> which are now relative to the latter.<br />

<strong>The</strong> most radical place <strong>in</strong> which this re-orientation <strong>of</strong> the concept <strong>of</strong> Setzung to<br />

setzen occurs is <strong>in</strong> the replacement <strong>of</strong> the function <strong>of</strong> god as an a priori ground for both<br />

the data <strong>and</strong> synthesis <strong>of</strong> all <strong>in</strong>ner possibility (or ―storehouse <strong>of</strong> all possible predicates‖<br />

<strong>and</strong> orig<strong>in</strong>al unity whose determ<strong>in</strong>ations are immanent to it), with the function <strong>of</strong> the a<br />

priori sensible forms <strong>of</strong> <strong>in</strong>tuition: space <strong>and</strong> time. As seen above, <strong>in</strong> the discussion <strong>of</strong><br />

both self-affection <strong>and</strong> causality, space <strong>and</strong> time are the a priori forms out <strong>of</strong> which the<br />

transcendental imag<strong>in</strong>ation produces representations <strong>of</strong> spatial figures or temporal<br />

65

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