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On K ant's Conception of Inner Sense: Self‐Affection by the Understanding
Author(s) -
Schmitz Friederike
Publication year - 2015
Publication title -
european journal of philosophy
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.42
H-Index - 36
eISSN - 1468-0378
pISSN - 0966-8373
DOI - 10.1111/ejop.12025
Subject(s) - interpretation (philosophy) , epistemology , philosophy , affection , ant , common sense , sense (electronics) , computer science , linguistics , computer network , electrical engineering , engineering
Among the extensive literature on the first C ritique , very few commentators offer a thorough analysis of K ant's conception of inner sense. This is quite surprising since the notion is central to K ant's theoretical philosophy, and it is very difficult to provide a consistent interpretation of this notion. In this paper, I first summarize K ant's claims about inner sense in the T ranscendental A esthetic and show why existing interpretations have been unable to dissolve the tensions arising from the conjunction of these claims. Secondly, I present my own reconstruction of K ant's model of inner sense, relying essentially on K antian considerations found in the B ‐version of the T ranscendental D eduction. My main idea is that inner sense, for K ant, is a passive faculty that gets affected by the understanding performing its figurative synthesis on material given in outer sense. In the remainder of the paper, I highlight a few consequences of my interpretation and outline ways to deal with some objections.