The role of Anschauung in Kant's conception of geometry

Far from being outdated, Kant’s philosophy of mathematics offers valuable insights to modern scholarship. This paper focuses on Kant’s notion of Anschauung (commonly translated as intuition) within geometry. Contrary to a widely held view, it will be shown that appealing to Kantian intuition is, in some cases, still necessary. After reviewing past and recent objections to Kant’s arguments, a new interpretation of A 716-717/B 744-745 of the first Critique (CPR) will be proposed. The role that Kant assigns to intuition in this passage, which I term 'revelatory,' remains indispensable despite modern advances in mathematics and logic. Notably, almost all English translations of the CPR, as well as the official translations in French and Greek, have disregarded this function of intuition. This paper aims to show why these interpretations are inconsistent with Kant’s philosophy of mathematics and to argue that the revelatory function of intuition withstands objections to the classical reading.

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Publication Details

Journal
Con-Textos Kantianos International Journal of Philosophy
Published
2024-11-20
DOI
https://doi.org/10.5209/kant.97442
Primary Topic
Philosophical Ethics and Theory
Type
article
Field-Weighted Citation Impact
0.00
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The role of Anschauung in Kant's conception of geometry

Foivos Syrigos
Con-Textos Kantianos International Journal of Philosophy
Philosophical Ethics and Theory
article

The role of Anschauung in Kant's conception of geometry

Foivos Syrigos
article en

Abstract

Far from being outdated, Kant’s philosophy of mathematics offers valuable insights to modern scholarship. This paper focuses on Kant’s notion of Anschauung (commonly translated as intuition) within geometry. Contrary to a widely held view, it will be shown that appealing to Kantian intuition is, in some cases, still necessary. After reviewing past and recent objections to Kant’s arguments, a new interpretation of A 716-717/B 744-745 of the first Critique (CPR) will be proposed. The role that Kant assigns to intuition in this passage, which I term 'revelatory,' remains indispensable despite modern advances in mathematics and logic. Notably, almost all English translations of the CPR, as well as the official translations in French and Greek, have disregarded this function of intuition. This paper aims to show why these interpretations are inconsistent with Kant’s philosophy of mathematics and to argue that the revelatory function of intuition withstands objections to the classical reading.

Con-Textos Kantianos International Journal of Philosophy(20)
National and Kapodistrian University of Athens (GR), Athens State University (US)
Quality Education
Openalex Percentile: Top 66%
Philosophical Ethics and Theory
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