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4 - Receptivity or Spontaneity

Two Readings of the Critique of Pure Reason

from Part I - The Lasting Meaning of Kant’s Thought

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 May 2022

Simon Truwant
Affiliation:
Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Belgium
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Summary

Tackles the two main issues of contention between Cassirer's and Heidegger’s interpretations of Kant. I first examine why Heidegger opposes his own ‘ontological reading’ of the first Critique to the ‘epistemological reading’ that he attributes to the Neo-Kantians. I clarify what this opposition entails and consider in what way it indeed applies to Cassirer (4.1). Next, I turn to Cassirer and Heidegger's more specific disagreement regarding the relevance of Kant's account of transcendental imagination. Remarkably, both thinkers not only value how this account attempts to undercut the artificial opposition between receptivity and spontaneity (4.2), but their agreement extends to the shared thesis that Kant ultimately did not succeed because he lacked a truly phenomenological method (4.3). Yet, Cassirer and Heidegger still radically part ways as soon as they evaluate why this (failed) attempt is so important: while Heidegger takes transcendental imagination as the ground of human reason’s finite nature, Cassirer concludes from the primacy of this faculty to the fundamentally spontaneous character of reason (4.4).

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Chapter
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Cassirer and Heidegger in Davos
The Philosophical Arguments
, pp. 85 - 108
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2022

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  • Receptivity or Spontaneity
  • Simon Truwant, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Belgium
  • Book: Cassirer and Heidegger in Davos
  • Online publication: 05 May 2022
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009019569.006
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  • Receptivity or Spontaneity
  • Simon Truwant, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Belgium
  • Book: Cassirer and Heidegger in Davos
  • Online publication: 05 May 2022
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009019569.006
Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

  • Receptivity or Spontaneity
  • Simon Truwant, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Belgium
  • Book: Cassirer and Heidegger in Davos
  • Online publication: 05 May 2022
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009019569.006
Available formats
×