Forms of Intuition An Historical Introduction to the Transcendental
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FORMS OF INTUITION AN HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION TO THE TRANSCENDENTAL AESTHETIC by
RICHARD A. SMYTH
•
1978
MARTINUS NIJHOFF / THE HAGUE-BOSTON
This book is dedicated to Elizabeth Smyth and to the memory of Ralston Smyth
© 1978 by Martinus Nijhoff, The Hague, Netherlands
All rights reserved, including the right to translate or to reproduce this book or parts thereof in any form.
ISBN-13: 978-90-247-2001-9 e-ISBN-13: 978-94-009-9668-7 DOl: 10.1007/ 978-94-009-9668-7 TYPESET IN THE UNITED KINGDOM
TABLE OF CONTENTS
CHAPTER ONE: THE ELEMENTS OF KNOWLEDGE
I. II. III. IV.
The Nature of Transcendental Philosophy Kant's Analytic-Synthetic Distinction Is Different from Ours An Interpretation of Kant's Distinction Kant's Copernican Revolution
CHAPTER Two: TRANSCENDENTAL ELEMENTS IN RATIONALISM
I. The Method of Clear and Distinct Ideas II. Spinoza's Contribution to the Aesthetic CHAPTER THREE: GENESIS OF A THEORY OF REFERENCE
I. Sensibility and Understanding II. Historical Motives for Kant's Distinction III. From "Tractarian" to Critical Views About Representation CHAPTER FOUR: TERMINOLOGY IN THE AESTHETIC
1 14 21 43
62 62 69
80 82 107 119
134
I. The Ethics of Terminology II. Intuitions as Singular Concepts III. Intuitions as Forms and as Conditions
135 139 153
CHAPTER FIVE: ARGUMENTS IN THE AESTHETIC
170
I. II. III. IV.
Kant's Strategy Space as an a priori Representation Space as an Intuitive Representation Forms of Intuition in Formal and Transcendental Logic
170 176 198 213
ApPENDIX: LOGICAL FORM IN CRITICAL PHILOSOPHY
224
INDEX OF NAMES
227
CHAPTER ONE
THE ELEMENTS OF KNOWLEDGE
I. THE NATURE OF TRANSCENDENTAL PHILOSOPHY
An introduction to Kant's transcendental aesthetic requires a look at the general character of transcendental philosophy. Kant introduces the subject in his Critique of Pure Reason, saying, "I entitle transcendental all knowledge which is occupied not so much with objects as with the mode of our knowledge of objects in so far as this mode of knowledge is to be possible a priori. A system of such concepts might be entitled transcendental philosophy." 1 Events very quickly proved to Kant that this explanation itself required some explaining. What happened shed's some light on his concept of transcendental philosophy. Several branches of traditional philosophy can be described as having a direct concern with objects. In particular, general metaphysics or ontology is the science that supplies the basic concepts and principles that apply to all objects whatsoever. Kant's explanation of his new transcendental philosophy might easily be taken to say that it deals with our knowledge of objects, but does not concern itself at all with the objects of knowledge. Several of Kant's most devoted students did read him in this spirit and they concluded that an ontology is not supplied with the new philosophy. Acting in good faith on the basis of that assumption, they attempted to supplement Kant's system with the missing chapters on metaphysics. In response to Fichte's work Kant very for
