ABSTRACT
I offer a reading of the Schematism chapter, focusing on Kant’s use of the image of drawing a line, and sketch an argument for why this chapter of the Critique of Pure Reason ought to be looked at more closely in the long-standing debate over conceptualism and non-conceptualism. The Schematism is a notoriously difficult chapter, but many have neglected to comment on the image Kant uses to characterize the activity of the imagination in applying the categories to the forms of sensibility, an activity generally understood to be integral for the schematizing process. Using some hints from a phenomenological understanding of time-consciousness, I offer one way of understanding what Kant could have meant by portraying schematism in terms of time-determinations, focusing particularly on Kant’s treatment of number. Furthermore, the problem of how the categories are applied to sensibility is central to the Schematism, so these considerations offer sufficient justification for considering the chapter as supporting non-conceptualist readings. While the chapter privileges a non-conceptualist reading of Kant’s theory of cognition overall, it also poses some problems for what it means for Kant to be a non-conceptualist, given the importance Kant places on understanding magnitude in numerical (i.e., conceptual) terms.
