«…noch bevor wir sie selbst erlangen». Remarks on Kant’s Geographies of the Empirical

Abstract

The objective of this article is to provide some insights into Kant’s conception of the empirical with a view to a better understanding of Kant’s presupposition of a plan “in advance” of it. The article is structured in three steps. The initial step involves a comparison between Kant’s and Hegel’s conceptions of reason, which serves to highlight the different status of Kant’s a priori and “observative” reason from a theoretical point of view. The second step focuses on the Introduction and Preliminary Mathematical Concepts of his Physical Geography, in order to develop the problem indicated by the quotation in the title, namely that we must presuppose a plan of our empirical cognitions “even before we attain them”. The third step, finally, attempts to prove that the dynamic underlying Kant’s Physical Geography corresponds to the theory of the appearance of appearance formulated by Kant in the Opus postumum.