Fumbling with Kant’s assembly of a spectral world
November 5, 2009
In my inspired treatise on St. Paul I had been thinking about him and going about getting everything ready, i.e., full cup, computer and glasses in a comfortable sitting position, and focusing on my inspiration. I caught myself walking into the bedroom to retrieve the . . . and I couldn’t remember what it was, for all things were in place, just that brief instant of question and then simply turning back to the chair while thinking about my great idea (one of many that pop up all the time). And as I sat down and looked for the book of my inspiration I realized that it was in the bedroom and that I had been in search of that book in the first place, when I was wandering around in my daze and wondering what I was looking for.
So there was that earlier question of “what am I looking for?†and which was forgotten (and actually written off as typically inspired behavior, i.e., severe preoccupation), and has now found a connection, the connection of the book, not a usual part of my inspirational scene. I.e., I was in fact looking for something, the book, only I had forgotten it in my preparation and preoccupation, and was not wandering about but was looking for the book, something I am not wont to do.
And so the spectral world is assembled by the human understanding in terms of the unity of time and the continuing existence of the book, for I might as well have thought that I was wandering around and not looking for anything, and then, upon seeing the book, say to myself: “here is the book that I want”, and not put them together, but entertain them sequentially as isolated consciousnesses.
Filed under: Kant