Comments and Questions to: John Protevi
LSU French & Italian
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Classroom use only. Do not cite w/o permission.

Course given at University of Warwick Fall 1995
 
 
 

I.Structure:
    A.Transcendental Doctrine of Elements
        1.Transcendental Aesthetic
            a.space
            b.time
        2.Transcendental Logic
            a.Transcendental Analytic
                (1)Concepts
                    (a)Clue: Table of Judgments
                    (b)Deduction: pure concepts of understanding ["categories"]
                (2)Principles
                    (a)schematism
                    (b)system
                        i)axioms of intuition
                        ii)anticipations of perception
                        iii)
                        iv)
                (3)Distinction of Phenomena/Noumena
            b.Transcendental Dialectic
                (1)Paralogisms: pyschology: soul
                (2)Antinomies: cosmology: world
                (3)Ideal: theology: God
    B.Transcendental Doctrine of Method
        1.Discipline
        2.Canon
        3.Architectonic
        4.History

II.Key Terms:
    A.a priori = prior to experience;
        1.universal and necessary;
        2.constitution of objectivity by subjectivity;
        3."Copernican Revolution"
    B.synthetic = predicate not in subject;
        1.not analytic [logical]
        2.but productive of new knowledge
    C.synthetic a priori = goal of CPR is to account for these
        1.e.g., "all events have causes";
        2.Hume restricted a priori to analytic judgments;
        3.for MH, these are ontologcal:
            a.the "upon-which" ["in terms of"] of a prior relation to a being,
            b.i.e., the Being of that being
    D.transcendental = constitution of objectivity
        1."knowledge" about knowledge of objects; [criticized by Hegel]
        2.what we can know about our a priori "knowledge" of objects?
        3.What is universal and necessary in all our knowledge claims?
        4.What is constitution of Being of beings brought about by subjectivity?
        5."transcendence" of a being [by the subject] to its Being;
        6.note the empirical - transcendental doubling:
            a.mentioned by Foucault in Order of Things
            b.this is JD's key point in reading of Husserl;
            c.also the focus of Deleuze through Bergson:
                (1)virtual/actual avoids resemblance of the possible to the real;
                (2)creative novelty is achieved in virtual - actual move.
    E.sensibility = receptivity;
        1.openness to objects being given;
        2.sensation = effect on us by an object
        3.form of object given by subject
        4.form is no longer in the thing,
            a.in which case the thing is best knowable by reason/nous
            b.and sensibility is mangled supplementary access to form
    F.intuition = immediate relation to an object.
        1.Empirical intuition: immediate relation to object via sensation.
        2.Pure intuition = space and time as unlimited single intuitions
    G.appearance = undetermined object of an empirical intuition.
        1.never actually encountered by us
        2.since appearances are always determined by space/time and categories
    H.phenomenon: what we encounter [product of sense and thought]
    I.understanding = power of conceptual thought
        1.unifies the [synthesized] sensory manifold
        2.faculty of rules = faculty of judgment
    J.judgment: bringing particular under universal
        1.faculty of taste
        2.talent for applying rules: itself has no rules
        3.types:
            a.determinative: fit the manifold under given concept
            b.reflective: find the concept for the given manifold
    K.imagination: power to synthesize the manifold
        1.apprehension/reproduction/recognition
        2.transcendental imagination
            a.functions in the schematism as pure temporal orderings,
            b."translating" categories into temporal orderings of manifold.
        3.for Heidegger:
            a.perhaps the "common root" of sensibility and understanding?
        4.Anthropology: "a power of producing intuitions even when the object is not present" (#28),
            a.productive: original, a priori exhibition:
                (1)space and time;
                (2)artistic creation: re-formation of previously given matter
            b.reproductive: bringing back previously held empirical intuition
    L.reason: multiple uses of this word
        1.speculative: drive to complete a series of syllogisms;
            a."unconditioned," totality, given only in imagination (A416=B441).
            b.critical: reason's ability to judge itself, set limits to itself.
                (1)assigns proper role of speculative reason as regulative, not constitutive,
                (2)thus forbidding transcendent use of categories
                    (a)(applied beyond possible experience to ideas of reason:
                    (b)representations of the unconditioned: soul, world, God).
            c.practical: self-ordering, autonomy, submission to moral law.
                (1)reason as authoritative re: sensibility, so that it is unchallenged ruler of moral body

III.Transcendental Aesthetic
    A.Space: form of outer intuition
        1.all appearances spread themselves around us
    B.Time: form of inner intuition
        1.all appearances occur in ordered series
    C.Space and time are themselves pure intuitions
        1.abstracting from sense, they remain as individual wholes
        2.determinate spaces and times are only parts of these wholes
        3.space/time is represented as a line (A33=B50)

IV.Transcendental Analytic:
    A.Clue (table of judgments)
        1.how S and P can be related:
        2."unity of the act of bringing various representations under one common representation" (A68=B93).
        3.understanding uses concepts to judge:
            a.to link a concept to another representation:
            b.i.e., an intuition or another concept.
        4.judgment is a mediation, a linking, a referral:
            a.Beziehung, "function of unity among representations" (A69=93-94).
            b.as Aristotle says:
                (1)logos is always ti kata tinos:
                (2)saying something about something.
            c.Heidegger: pre-expressive or ontological level: "hermeneutic as":
                (1)cf his Logik: Die Frage nach der Wahrheit (WS 1925-26; GA 21)
                (2) or the Grundbegriffe der Metaphysik (WS 1929-30; GA 29-30).
        5.CJ: K says judgment is linking ("subsuming") particular to universal.
            a.determinative: fit manifold to given universal;
            b.reflective, given the particular, find the universal.
        6.As forms of relating S and P, we have 12, in 4 headings. At least one is in every judgment:
            a.Quantity:
                (1)Universal: All S is P
                (2)Particular: Some S is P
                (3)Singular: This S is P
            b.Quality:
                (1)Affirmative: S is P
                (2)Negative: S is not P
                (3)Infinite: S is (non-P)
            c.Relation:
                (1)Categorial: All S is P
                (2)Hypothetical: If S, then P
                (3)Disjunctive: S or P
            d.Modality:
                (1)Problematic: S is possibly P
                (2)Assertoric: S is definitely P
                (3)Necessary: S is necessarily P
    B.Deduction: the next move is supremely controversial: from forms of judging to pure concepts of the understanding, what K calls "categories."
        1.manifold of intuition, shaped by space/time, must be "synthesized":
            a."gone through, taken up, connected" (A77=B102).
            b.Kant further stresses the unifying of diversity that is synthesis: "the act of putting different representations together, and of grasping what is manifold in them in one act of knowledge" (A77=B103).
            c.NB: we can reach pure manifold only by abstract analysis; what is given to experience is always already ["a priori"] synthesized
            d.What is synthesized? The manifold of pure intuition.
            e.What performs this synthesis? Imagination: "a blind but indispensable function of the soul" (A78=B103).
            f.synthesized manifold is "brought to concepts" by the understanding.
        2.So Kant lists three pre-requisites of "knowledge" [constitution of objectivity] (A79=B104):
            a.manifold of pure intuition = shaping by space and time of sense
            b.synthesis of manifold by imagination
                (1)apprehension, reproduction, recognition (only in A deduction)
                (2)identified by MH as pure temporality of T imagination:
                    (a)apprehension = presentification;
                    (b)reproduction = pure past;
                    (c)recognition = pure future
            c.conceptual unifying of the synthesized manifold by understanding:
                (1)move from b. to c. is itself a synthesis by TI via schematism
                (2)categories provide skeleton of any [assertion about] things;
                (3)any thing must have one from each heading:
                (4)these are really schematized categories:
                    (a)they are really time determinations
                    (b)w/o time determination they are only forms of judgement
        3.deduction seeks to explain how categories relate a priori to objects:
            a.K wants to justify his claim that these are universal and necessary structures of experience
            b.categories apply to transcendental object = X
                (1)indeterminated object in general
            c.categories are correlate of [relate back to] TUA
                (1)TUA = reworked "subject"
                (2)pure logical principle,
                (3)ability to say "I think" w/ any judgment
                (4)part of process of object-formation, never object
                    (a)paralogisms show fallacy of going from subject to substance
                    (b)i.e., treating the "I," the condition of objects, as object
    C.PRINCIPLES:
        1.Schematism: mediates ["synthesizes"] categories and intuition
            a.how can understanding and imagination be in accord: problem of CJ
            b.allowing judgment (subsumption of intuition under pure concept).
            c.Transcendental schema = "third thing"
                (1)("between";
                (2)neither receptivity nor spontaneity;
                (3)neither immediate nor discursive).
            d.Time is the key:
                (1)trans determination of time is universal and a priori rule-bound (hence category),
                (2)yet time is contained in every empirical manifold (hence goes w/ appearances).
            e.imagination can provide rules for producing an image for a concept;
                (1)= "schema" of the concept.
                (2)schema of pure concept = synthesis by which the concept does its work of unifying the manifold, that is, the way it temporally orders intuition.
                (3)schema = temporal "embodiment" of conceptual relation
                    (a)For example, the schema of magnitude is number, succesive addition of homogeneous units.
                    (b)Or, famously, causation is "rule-bound succession of the manifold" Y following necessarily upon X.
        2.conclusions:
            a.thus TI is formation of time and hence objectivity
                (1)hence interest of Marburg MH: Being and Time
            b.TI is not formation of pre-existent material [merely productive]
            c.but original generation of time itself [=auto-affection]
            d.so time is not just succession, but types of succession

V.Transcendental Dialectic
    A.definition: natural illusion of reason
        1.tendency of theoretical reason to bypass regulative for constitutive
        2.trouble reason gets into unless restricted by critical reason to serving understanding's rule
    B.natural drive to completion
        1.forms ideas: images of totality
            a.soul: psychology: paralogisms
            b.world: cosmology: antinomies
            c.God: theology: Ideal
        2.seduces understanding to apply its categories to Ideas
        3.metaphysics is result
            a.transcendent use of understanding
            b.constitutive use of reason
    C.Antinomies: conflicts of reason with itself in its concepts of world
        1.ridiculed by Hegel as "excess of tenderness for things of the world" for assignment of contradiction to reason alone
        2.four in number: matching table of judgments;
        3.each has thesis [rationalism] and antithesis [empiricism]
            a.quantity: finitude/infinitude of time and space
            b.quality: simple/composites of each thing
            c.relation: causality of freedom/causality only of nature
            d.modality: necessary being/no necessary being
        4.each side can prove its point, leaving metaphysics as endless battle
D.let's focus on 3rd Antinomy as key to transition to CPrR
    1.thesis: causality of freedom [rationalism]
        a.reason demands stop to infinite regress of series of causes
        b.posits absolute spontaneity as uncaused caused
        c.this is transcendental freedom
    2.antithesis: causality of natural laws [empiricism]
        a.transcendental freedom destroys very idea of a causality
        b.ie, universal and necessary law [everything must have a cause]
    3.solution: transcendental idealism: phenomena/noumena distinction
        a.thesis concerns noumenal [thinkable] thing in itself
        b.antithesis concerns phenomenal [knowable] appearance
    4.consequence: freedom is thinkable, but not knowable
    5.end to war: neither side can win, but spectator can see futility