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The Ideality of Space and Time: Trendelenburg versus Kant, Fischer and Bird

Kanterian, Edward (2013) The Ideality of Space and Time: Trendelenburg versus Kant, Fischer and Bird. Kantian Review, 18 (02). pp. 263-288. ISSN 1369-4154. (doi:10.1017/S1369415413000022) (The full text of this publication is not currently available from this repository. You may be able to access a copy if URLs are provided) (KAR id:42335)

The full text of this publication is not currently available from this repository. You may be able to access a copy if URLs are provided. (Contact us about this Publication)
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http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/S1369415413000022

Abstract

Trendelenburg argued that Kant's arguments in support of transcendental idealism ignored the possibility that space and time are both ideal and real. Recently, Graham Bird has claimed that Trendelenburg (unlike his contemporary Kuno Fischer) misrepresented Kant, confusing two senses of ‘subjective/objective’. I defend Trendelenburg's ‘neglected alternative’: the ideas of space and time, as a priori and necessary, are ideal, but this does not exclude their validity in the noumenal realm. This undermines transcendental idealism. Bird's attempt to show that the Analytic considers, but rejects, the alternative fails: an epistemological reading makes Kant accept the alternative, while an ontological reading makes him incoherent. As I demonstrate, Trendelenburg acknowledged the ambiguity of ‘subjective/objective’, focusing on the transcendental, not the empirical sense. Unlike Fischer, Bird denies Kant's commitment to things-in-themselves in favour of a descriptivist, non-ontological reading of transcendental idealism as an inventory of ‘immanent experience’. But neither Bird's descriptivism, nor Fischer's commitment to things-in-themselves, answers Trendelenburg's sceptical worry about transcendental idealism.

Item Type: Article
DOI/Identification number: 10.1017/S1369415413000022
Subjects: B Philosophy. Psychology. Religion > B Philosophy (General)
Divisions: Divisions > Division of Arts and Humanities > School of Culture and Languages
Depositing User: Edward Kanterian
Date Deposited: 15 Aug 2014 13:49 UTC
Last Modified: 06 Feb 2020 04:09 UTC
Resource URI: https://kar.kent.ac.uk/id/eprint/42335 (The current URI for this page, for reference purposes)

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