The Kantian background of Uexküll's notions of time and space.

Abstract

The Baltic-German biologist Jakob von Uexküll was heavily inspired by the work of philosopher Immanuel Kant. Uexküll's views on time and space were likewise inspired by Kant. Kant argued that time and space are the a priori forms of intuition. Uexküll argued similarly that time and space depend entirely on the subject. It is the subject's biological constitution that brings forth time and space, and this conceptual pair is therefore a foundational part of the subject's world. But Uexküll also took inspiration from other authors. The aim of this paper is to investigate how Uexküll adapted Kant's notions of time and space and how this adaptation is related to another investigation into the topic of time and space by the biologist Felix Gross. To achieve this, I examine how Gross's work shaped Uexküll's adaptation of Kant's ideas. I show how Gross's essay on Kant's views on time and space shaped Uexküll's alteration and naturalisation of Kant's pure forms of intuition.