Reality and Negation - Kant's Principle of Anticipations of Perception: An Investigation of its Impact on the Post-Kantian Debate (Studies in German Idealism Book 11)

Kant, in the Critique of Pure Reason, only dedicates a few pages to the principle of Anticipations of Perception and only a few critical studies are outspokenly dedicated to this issue in recent critical literature. But if one considers the history of post-Kantian philosophy, one can immediately perceive the great importance of the new definition of the relationship between reality and negation, which Kant’s principle proposes. Critical philosophy is here radically opposed to the pre-critical metaphysical tradition: "Reality" no longer appears as absolutely positive being, which excludes all negativity from itself, and "negation" is not reduced to being a simple removal, the mere absence of being. Instead, reality and negation behave as an equally positive something in respect to one another such that negation is itself a reality that is actively opposed to another reality. Such a definition of the relation between reality and negation became indispensible for post-Kantian Philosophy and represents a central aspect of Kantian-inspired philosophy in respect to Leibnizian metaphysics. The present work therefore departs from the hypothesis that the essential philosophical importance of the __Anticipations of Perception__ can only be fully measured by exploring its impact in the Post-Kantian debate. Cover 1 Reality and Negation – Kant’s Principle of Anticipations of Perception 4 Copyright 5 Abbreviations 8 Contents 10 Introduction 12 Chapter 1: From the Anticipations of Perception to the Dynamic Conception of Matter 14 1.1 Anticipation as A Priori Knowledge 14 1.2 Perception and Sensation 18 1.3 The Strangeness of the ‘Anticipations’ 20 1.4 The Quantity of Quality: Degree or Intensive Magnitude 22 1.5 The Two Formulations of the Principle 29 1.6 The Category of Reality 32 1.7 The Distinction Between Realitas Phaenomenon and Realitas Noumenon 36 1.8 The Critique of the Concept of Gradus Perfectionis 39 1.9 From the Ontological Meaning to the Physical Meaning of the Concept of Degree 41 1.10 Force and Sensation 43 1.11 The Dynamic Conception of Matter 47 Chapter 2: From Real Opposition to the Problem of Change1 54 2.1 Logical Opposition and Real Opposition 54 2.2 Quantitative and Qualitative Opposition 63 2.3 The Problem of Change 65 2.4 Change and Real Opposition 67 2.5 Change as Quantitative Variation 70 2.6 Maimon’s Theory of Differentials 72 2.7 Change and Synthetic Unity 79 Chapter 3: The Anticipations of Perception in Post-Kantian Idealism 84 3.1 Fichte and the Opposition Between the I and the Not−I 84 3.2 Schelling and the Philosophy of Nature 95 3.3 The Problem of Quality and the Opposition between Positive and Negative 113 3.4 Speculative Philosophy of Nature and Mathematical Philosophy of Nature 122 3.5 The Absolute as Quantitative Indifference 132 3.6 Hegel and the “Mathematics of the Infinite” 137 3.7 Being, Nothingness, and Becoming 157 3.8 Herbart and Being as Pure Affirmation 163 Chapter 4: The Anticipations of Perception in Neo-Kantian Idealism 170 4.1 From Classical Idealism to the Return to Kant 170 4.2 From Psychophysics to Infinitesimal Calculus 175 4.3 Cohen and the History of the Infinitesimal Method 191 4.4 Intensive Magnitude and Infinitesimal Magnitude 211 4.5 From Synthesis A Priori to the Logic of the Origin 215 4.6 From the Logic of the Origin to the Logic of the Concept of Relation 220 4.7 Concept of Thing and Concept of Function 229 4.8 Ontological Interpretations of Kant and the Crisis of the Neo-Kantian Hermeneutic Paradigm 234 Conclusion 244 Works Cited 248 Index 262 9400700644,9789400700642,9789400700659 Springer Front Matter....Pages i-xii From the Anticipations of Perception to the Dynamic Conception of Matter....Pages 1-40 From Real Opposition to the Problem of Change....Pages 41-69 The Anticipations of Perception in Post-Kantian Idealism....Pages 71-156 The Anticipations of Perception in Neo-Kantian Idealism....Pages 157-233 Back Matter....Pages 231-264