Kant’s Transcendental Aesthetic: Space and Time
Transcendental Aesthetic
Time is nothing objective. We propose that space is not different from bodies. If something other than bodies were to be bodies and space, but it is something in the bodies that does not differ from them, as Leibniz thought, then we would not talk about space. These two positions lead to two intractable paradoxes, as they always leave space and time as two more or less objective realities. For Kant, space is an a priori form of sensibility, something that we construct when we perceive objects.
Space
Space is a concept, and every concept is a synthesis of intuitions, and here is a summary thereof. Space is not an empirical concept that comes from experience, nor is it relational because there is not space or time, but one space and one time. Space is an intuition, not empirical, but a pure intuition, which means it is a pure form that excludes all experience but is the condition of experience, and we capture experience with this intuition. In this condition, we capture the determinations of space, any geometric shapes.
But what is space?
Space is a quantity (quantum), infinite, since it is assumed that we can always conceive of an infinite quantity. It is a quantity that could be understood as continuous and provides the basis for the perception of any object. It would be something like a necessary a priori representation that serves as the basis for empirical representations. The feature of space is mostly its extension. This quantity appears as a vast amount, and under that capacity for expansion, we represent the world. We can conceive of spatial representations of geometric figures.
Time
Time is also a way of feeling, something that we construct when we perceive objects. Representation is necessary; it is what we become when we perceive, and it is a priori. Everything we perceive is given in time. Time is thus a way to capture objects; its form is the order of sensations, and time is that condition in shape, pure intuition is not pure empirical intuition. It is then something which I set, and thereby I caught a thing, always in a specific order of succession of perceptions, which is time. Time is not on the objects, but what I get. It is something we order the world with. It is not an empirical concept since it is a synthesis of intuitions, nor is it a relational concept; it is an a priori form of sensibility through which we capture objects. Time is put into the intuition.
But what is the essence of time?
It consists of a quantum, whose nature is an infinite quantity, but by which we establish an order in the intuitions, which refers to the dimensions of time (past, present, and future). These two pure intuitions, forms of sensibility, attend to two ways of perceiving. The purpose is distinct: space, as a way of feeling, is a way by which we grasp internal objects; it makes reference to internal sensitivity. This means that everything that happens outside, we grasp in time. Space is temporary, but the converse is not necessarily valid because our internal sense captures our inner moods, which are temporary but not spatial.
Kant’s Originality
Kant’s originality is not there, but for him, space and time are the very foundation of mathematics. There are different issues:
- The question of how judgments of mathematics are synthetic a priori judgments.
- The foundation of mathematics, geometry, and arithmetic.
- The constitution of figures and numbers.
In all, we distinguish intuition: the area – shape. To matter is the same feeling, while the shape is a priori conditions of sensitivity, which are, according to Kant, space and time. Pure intuition would be, for example, the shape of the table. The basis of geometry is space; the basis of arithmetic is time. The basis of geometry would therefore be in any pure intuitions that we have of space, which are endless, and the foundation of arithmetic would be determinations of time, which always appear as discrete units, not continuous, while space appears as continuous quantities. Both are amounts to Kant: totality and continuous whole batch.