PHIL 460 Lecture Notes - Lecture 17: Transcendental Idealism, Cubic Foot
12 Jun 2018
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So, Kant has shown first that it is a priori, second that it is intuitive.
How is space given as infinite? Inaugural Dissertation:
1. What you speak of as several places are parts of one & the same boundless
space
2. Nor can you conceive a cubic foot unless it is bounded in all directions by the
space that surrounds it,
Note: his argument rests on distinction between concepts and intuitions. But
ultimately, trying to get at something fundamental/different about space and time.
Transcendental Exposition:
In A edition, this is in the metaphysical exposition, gets its own status in B. Why?
Because aesthetic grounds the expositions argument.
Metaphysical Exposition: exhibits the concepts a priori
Transcendental Exposition: exposition that explains the concept in such a way that
it explains the possibility of other synthetic a priori cognition.
Question: does transcendental exposition actually depend on geometry? From
geometry or to geometry? (Prof says latter).
Arguments in Trans. Exposition:
• Taking space & time as a priori intuition shows the a priority and that it is
synthetic
• Paragraph 3: move to transcendental idealism
o How can mind have an outer intuition which inhabits it, prior to
objects themselves, and in which the concept of the object can be
determined a priori? Everyone prior had claimed you get them from
experience
• Only if representation is subjective
• so geometry → a priori, subjective
• Experience presupposes causal principle that Hume believes to be derived
from experience; thats where were going
• How can there be an intuition prior to an affection?
o only possible if intuition =/= things in themselves
o could only know whats contained in objects by experience if they
were things in themselves
o for the possibility of a priori intuition of space → requires that they be
representations
• In other words, we contribute formal constitution.
• We constitute objects by what comes at us by means of our sensation
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