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Infinity and givenness: Kant on the intuitive origin of spatial representation

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2020

Daniel Smyth
Daniel Smyth*
Affiliation:
Department of Philosophy, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL, USA
*
*Email: dsmyth@uchicago.edu
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Abstract

I advance a novel interpretation of Kant’s argument that our original representation of space must be intuitive, according to which the intuitive status of spatial representation is secured by its infinitary structure. I defend a conception of intuitive representation as what must be given to the mind in order to be thought at all. Discursive representation, as modelled on the specific division of a highest genus into species, cannot account for infinite complexity. Because we represent space as infinitely complex, the spatial manifold cannot be generated discursively and must therefore be given to the mind, i.e. represented in intuition.

Keywords

Kantintuitionsensibilityspaceinfinitycontinuumsingular representation
Type
Research Article
Information
Canadian Journal of Philosophy , Volume 44 , Issue 5-6: Special Issue: Mathematics in Kant’s Critical Philosophy , December 2014 , pp. 551 - 579
Copyright
Copyright © Canadian Journal of Philosophy 2014

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