#3 - Developing a Transcendental Philosophy
Troweling in the third layer, the faculties.
Section III, Kant’s draft introduction to Critique of Judgment that was never published.
III. On the system of all the faculties of the human mind
We can trace all faculties of the human mind without exception back to these three: the faculty of cognition, the feeling of pleasure and displeasure, and the faculty of desire.
Cognition has always been an ambiguous term What is meant by this word that has been translated from the German word Erkenntniß? Kant says hear that cognition is a subset of the mind, that the mind has faculties other than cognition. The juxtaposition of this faculty with desire and pleasure indicates that cognition refers to thought. Thought is closely associated with knowing, i.e., with being aware of something, with recognizing something. Can I perceive something without knowing that I perceive something? If so, I don't know about it. Kant seems to use the term “cognition” at times to be referring to knowledge acquisition and sometimes to thinking in general, as in Descartes’ famous cogito, ergo sum, where thinking, knowing, and awareness all fit together seemlessly
Some will object to this tie of knowledge with overt consciousness, claiming, for example, that it is possible for plants or inanimate objects to have knowledge. The latest fad in quantum science is to think of the universe as having qualia which is something like consciousness, but such ideas need not conflict with Kant’s interpretation. His is based on a particular concept of conscious knowledge acquisition, like consciously working out a math problem, which need not directly conflict with other concepts that happen to employ the same word. Even someone who believes that plants have knowledge would also have to acknowledge that there is a form of knowing that involves consciously thinking through something in the ordinary sense of that term. So much disagreement stems from a lack of clarity between the words and the concepts they designate.
In this section, Kant separates the faculties but also points to connections. For example, if I know that I'm feeling pleasure, then I've united the faculty of pleasure with that cognition. People who know me know that I am very fond of dogs, so much so, that whenever one walks by me, my fondness gushes out so obviously that I become like a little boy with his first puppy. In that situation, two faculties emerge: a cognitive faculty, I know that I'm seeing a dog and I have an awareness that I feel pleasure at seeing the dog. This too is a cognitive faculty, i.e, awareness or recognition of what I am seeing, but one that combines the object, the dog, with the pleasure I feel at seeing the dog.
Awareness of the dog is one thing, but awareness of pleasure is another all together. Awareness of pleasure is a judgment that occurs when I have detached my cognition from any attempt at understanding (I’m not trying to investigate dogs) or desire (I’m not trying to take the dog from it's owner). It is thus a pure faculty, simple pleasure, that is revealed by this judgment, “I enjoy dogs,” which reveals an awareness.
Most all of our judgments are about something, but Kant wants to separate the form of judgment from what the judgment is about. Thus, a judgment about how I feel is in some sense a pure judgment in that it allows me to get to the form of judging and focus less on the object being judged. In such judgments, there is a focus, a subjective focus, a focus on how I feel.
Now look at this picture and honestly tell me you don't feel the same way.
