Abstract

According to Kant the figurative synthesis and the schemata are both serving the mediation of intuition and concept. In this article, I investigate their respective functions and the special manner of their cooperation in the process of knowledge. Kant prefers geometrical concepts as examples for schemata. The schema of a triangle is a rule to construct it, that is a rule which is able to produce an image. The representation of a triangle requires a construction, which is an action of the pure productive imagination: the figurative synthesis connects the manifold in pure intuition following the rules for construction. But important aspects remain hidden in mathematical examples. It is after all the same figurative synthesis which enables us to apprehend an object with the use of empirical concepts (A 224/B 271). This action of imagination and its cooperation with schematization becomes especially clear in the use of empirical concepts