The function of Imagination on the Transcendental Deduction A

Abstract

To answer upon the necessity of the pure concepts on the constitution of experience, Kant resorts to an essential process which must be able to unite that which is empirical and that which is conceptual: synthesis. Whilst Kant defines synthesis essentially as a function of imagination, increasingly, its association with understanding becomes evident, which becomes apparent in the Objective Deduction and the B Deduction. Our proposition is to investigate precisely what is the nature of the relation between imagination and understanding in the act of synthesis: of independence or dependence. In other words, we want to investigate if it is possible to conceive a synthesis independent of the categories. We cannot by any means underestimate the difficulty of the project, for the Transcendental Deduction is filled with ambiguities, which it is also shown by the vast divergence between commentators. Firstly, we will see that by "experience" we can both interpret the capacity of the mind to represent in general and the cognition of object, which changes radically the way that we consider the synthesis and their relation to understanding. Secondly, we will show that Kant presents at least three distinct definitions of synthesis: synthesis as constitutive of knowledge, synthesis as a blind function of imagination and synthesis as a bind pertaining to understanding. Thirdly, we will point how Kant presents synthesis sometimes as a single process, other times as a three-parted process, thus bluring whether we should consider a necessary unity between the three synthesis or not. Fourthly, we will show some ways to face the relation between reproductive imagination and productive imagination. Not only that, but we will need to pay attention to the expressive change of the Deduction on the second edition in regards to synthesis, imagination and understanding. We will focus mainly on the A Deduction, however without negligence of the potential objections that may arise from the B Deduction.