Daniel Sutherland, University of Illinois - Chicago

"Kant on the Singularity of Intuition"

Abstract:  Virtually all philosophers have interpreted Kant as holding that it is the nature of intuitions to represent a singular object or individuals.  I argue that this is fundamentally mistaken.  I argue that in Kant's view, it is the nature of intuition to represent singularly, that is, that singularity is best understood as a mode or way of representing.  This leaves open the possibility that intuition represents a homogeneous manifold of space or time indeterminately, that is, without representation of its parts as individuals.  I argue further that the representation of such a manifold underlies and makes possible the representation of individuals or objects in space and time.