RESIT/DEFERRED COURSEWORK REQUIREMENTS
ACADEMIC SESSION 2009/2010
TUTOR:
DR. MICK BOWLES
ALL RESIT/DEFERRED COURSEWORK MUST BE SUBMITTED BY 4pm on 20th
AUGUST 2010
HEADER SHEET NUMBER:
169340
COMPREHENSION TEST (KANT)
ASSESSMENT DETAILS:
PHIL1056
COURSE CODE
SPINOZA AND KANT, level 3
COURSE TITLE
COMPREHENSION TEST
(KANT)
Carefully read the three quotations below and answer all three of the
questions. Your answers should try and show that you have fully
understood the issues involved. Hence your principal aim must be to
explain and comprehend. This requires that you do not simply repeat and
copy but work things out; that is to say, try and philosophically analyse
what you are reading.
To fully understand the issues involved you will, of course, need to be
familiar with the general themes that Kant is concerned with in the
‘Analytic’ of the Critique of Pure Reason.
1. Read the following quotation and then explain why Kant contends that
“An arithmetical proposition is therefore always synthetic”.
At first sight one might suppose, indeed that the proposition
7+5=12 is a merely analytic one, following by the principle of
contradiction from the concept of a sum of 7 and 5. But if we look
more closely we find that the concept of the sum of 7 and 5
contains nothing beyond the union of the two numbers into one,
whereby nothing is being thought as to what this single number
may be which combines both. We by no means arrive at a concept
of twelve by thinking that union of seven and five; and we may
analyse our concept of such a possible sum as long as we please,
still we shall never discover in it the concept of twelve. We must go
beyond these concepts, and call in the assistance of the intuition
corresponding to one of the two, for instance, our fiver fingers, or …
five points, and so gradually add to the concept of seven the units
of the five given in intuition. For starting with the number 7, and
calling in the aid of the fingers of my hand as intuition in order to
form with it the concept of 5, I gradually add to the number 7 the
units which I previously took together to make up the number 5, by
means of the image of my hand, and I thus see the number 12
arise. That 5 should be added to 7, this I had no doubt already
thought in the concept of a sum = 7+5, but not that this sum be
equal to the number 12. An arithmetical proposition is therefore
always synthetic, which is seen more easily still when we take
larger numbers, where it is evident that, turn and twist our
concepts as we may, we could never, by means of the mere
analysis of our concepts and without the help of intuition, arrive at
the sum. (B15-B16, pp. 46-47)
2. Read the following quotation and then explain why Kant states that
time has empirical reality and transcendental ideality.
If we abstract from the manner in which we intuit ourselves
internally, and in which by means of this intuition we also take up
all outer intuitions into our power of representation, and if, hence,
we take objects as they may be in themselves, then time is
nothing. Time has objective validity only with respect to
appearances, because these are already things which we accept as
objects of ours senses; but time is no longer objective if we
abstract from the sensibility of our intuition, that is to say, from
that mode of representation which is peculiar to us, and speak of
things in general. Time is therefore merely a subjective condition
of our (human) intuition (which is always sensible, that is, so far as
we are affected by objects), but in itself, apart from the subject, it
is nothing. Nevertheless, with respect to all appearances, that is,
to all things which can enter into our experience, time is necessarily
objective. We cannot say that all things are in time, for in the
concept of things in general we abstract from all modes of their
intuition and therefore from the very condition under which time
belongs to our representation of objects. If, therefore, the
condition is added to the concept, and if we say that all things as
appearances (as objects of sensible intuition) are in time, then the
principle has its full objective correctness and a priori universality.
What we insist on, therefore, is the empirical reality of time,
that is, its objective validity with regard to all objects which might
ever be given to our senses. And as our intuition is always
sensible, no object can ever be given to us in experience which is
not subject to the conditions of time. What we deny, on the other
hand, is that time has any claim to absolute reality, that is to say,
we deny, without taking into account the form of our sensible
intuition, that time should by itself be a condition or property
adhering to things absolutely; for such properties which belong to
things in themselves can never be given to us through the senses.
This, then, is what constitutes the transcendental ideality of time,
according to which, if we abstract from the subjective conditions,
time is nothing, and cannot be regarded as subsisting or as inhering
in the objects in themselves (aside from their relation to our
intuition). (B51-B52, pp. 70-71)
3. Read the following quotation and then explain why Kant states that
“Knowledge is first produced by the synthesis of a manifold”.
Knowledge [Erkenntnis] is first produced by the synthesis of a
manifold (whether this manifold is given empirically or a priori).
This knowledge [Erkenntnis] may at first be crude and confused
and hence in need of analysis, yet synthesis is what really gathers
the elements for knowledge and unifies them into a certain content.
It is to synthesis, therefore, that we have to direct our attention
first if we want to form a judgment about the first origin of our
knowledge [Erkenntnis]. (B103, pp. 103-104)

Please type your work and make it clear which question you are
answering.

Note that the word limit for this whole test is 2000 words.

Before submission make sure you have complied with the following
check list:
 Proof read your work. This will enable you to check that
you have answered the questions (or addressed the issue)
set and correct any grammatical or presentation errors.
 Perform a spell check.
 Include page numbers.
 Reference all quotations and paraphrases.