Orientation and human body in Kant’s Directions in space

Abstract

The present article aims at highlighting the importance of Kant’s considerations about the relational mode of cognition of sensible objects in the 1768 essay On the first ground of the distinction of regions in space to comprehend entirely the cogency of the incongruent counterparts argument, and its conclusions. Firstly, I present an initial overview of Regions in space, contrasting Kant’s remarks on the three dimensionality of space with the relationality necessary to know external objects. After a brief exposition of these considerations, I present schematically a first way of understanding the incongruent-counterparts argument, without emphasizing the relationship of the human body with orientation. Then, I expose two objections from Peter Remnant, showing that the solution to both involves accepting the fundamentality of the human body for the formation of the concept of orientation. Grounded upon this solution, I try to review the manner of interpreting the incongruent-counterparts argument.