The second sentence gives expression to the fact through which Kant
proves his thesis. Certain sensations, those of the special senses as
distinguished from the organic sensations,[430] are related to something
which stands in a different region of space from the embodied self, and
consequently are apprehended as differing from one another not only in
quality but also in spatial position. As is proved later in the
_Analytic_, thought plays an indispensable part in constituting this
reference of sensations to objects. Kant here, however, makes no mention
of this further complication. He postulates, as he may legitimately do
at this stage, the fact that our sensations are thus objectively
interpreted, and limits his enquiry to the spatial factor. Now the
argument, as Vaihinger justly points out,[431] hinges upon the
assumption which Kant has already embodied[432] in his definition of the
“form” of sense, viz. that sensations are non-spatial, purely
qualitative. Though this is an assumption of which Kant nowhere attempts
to give proof, it serves none the less as an unquestioned premiss from
which he draws all-important conclusions. This first argument on space
derives its force entirely from it.
The proof that the representation of space is non-empirical may
therefore be explicitly stated as follows. As sensations are non-spatial
and differ only qualitatively, the representation of space must have
been added to them. And not being supplied by the given sensations, it
must, as the only alternative, have been contributed by the mind. The
representation of space, so far from being derived from external
experience, is what first renders it possible. As a subjective form that
lies ready in the mind, it precedes experience and co-operates in
generating it. This proof of the apriority of space is thus proof of the
priority of the _representation_ of space to every empirical perception.
In thus interpreting Kant’s argument as proving more than the thesis of
the first sentence claims, we are certainly reading into the proof more
than Kant has himself given full expression to. But, as is clearly shown
by the argument of the next section, we are only stating what Kant
actually takes the argument as having proved, namely, that the
representation of space is not only non-empirical but is likewise of
subjective origin and precedes experience in temporal fashion.