Anita Leirfall
Associate Professor
Department of Philosophy
University of Bergen
E-mail: anita.leirfall@fof.uib.no
SOME NOTES ON KANT’S METAPHYSICAL EXPOSITION OF THE CONCEPT
OF SPACE IN KRITIK DER REINEN VERNUNFT
In this course we will examine some aspects of the structure of argument in Kant’s four
arguments of space in the Transcendental Aesthetic in Kritik der reinen Vernunft
(Critique of Pure Reason) [1781/1787]. In §2 of this section, Kant maintains that i) space
is not an empirical concept, ii) space is a necessary representation a priori, iii) space is
not a general (discursive) concept of relations of things in general, but a pure intuition
and iv) space is represented as an infinite given magnitude.
I will organise the lectures on Kant’s metaphysical exposition of space in §2 by
questioning the framework of the argument:

Why does Kant present a metaphysical exposition of the concept of space?

What is a metaphysical exposition?
Suggested readings
Primary sources

Immanuel Kant, Kritik der reinen Vernunft [1781/1787], Hamburg: Felix Meiner
Verlag, 1956 (1971)

Immanuel Kant, Critique of Pure Reason [1781/1787]; translated by Allen W.
Wood and Paul Guyer, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998
[“Prefaces” (both A and B editions), “The Transcendental Aesthetic” (A19/B33–
A31/B46 and A41-42/B59–A50/B74] [Same sections as above]
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Secondary sources

Henry E. Allison, Kant’s Transcendental Idealism. An Interpretation and
Defense, New Haven & London: Yale University Press, 2004, chapters 1–5

Beck, Lewis White: “Kant’s Theory of Definition”, Kant: Disputed Questions,
edited by Moltke S. Gram, California: Ridgeview Publishing Company, 1984

Lorne Falkenstein, “Kant’s Transcendental Aesthetic”, A Companion to Kant,
edited by Graham Bird, Oxford: Blackwell Publishing, 2006

Paul Guyer, Kant and the claims of knowledge, Cambridge: Cambridge University
Press, 1987, chapters 15 and 16

Gary Hatfield, “Kant on the perception of space (and time)”, The Cambridge
Companion to Kant and Modern Philosophy, edited by Paul Guyer, Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press, 2006

Charles Parsons, “The Transcendental Aesthetic”, The Cambridge Companion to
Kant, edited by Paul Guyer, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1992
(1995)

Lisa Shabel, “Reflections on Kant’s concept (and intuition) of space”, Studies in
History and Philosophy of Science, 2003, 34: 45-57 http://people.cohums.ohiostate.edu/shabel1/papers/shabel3.pdf

Lisa Shabel, “The Transcendental Aesthetic”, The Cambridge Companion to
Kant's Critique of Pure Reason, edited by Paul Guyer, Cambridge University
Press, 2010 http://people.cohums.ohio-state.edu/shabel1/papers/shabel6.pdf

Randy Wojtowicz, “The Metaphysical Expositions of Space and Time,” Synthese,
1997, 113: 71-115
http://www.springerlink.com/content/l85x9141422r42q5/fulltext.pdf
For those who would like to get an overview of Kant’s philosophical development, I
recommend Schönfeld’s article in Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy: Kant’s
philosophical development: http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/kant-development/
Generally, Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy provides rich sources on the different
aspects of Kant’s philosophy, his philosophy of space (and time) included:
http://plato.stanford.edu (search for Kant, space, transcendental aesthetic, etc.)
The lectures will be given in English.
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