Preparing the particular: Kant on the imagination's role in judgment

Abstract

That Kant sees the faculties of imagination and judgment as closely related is not controversial. Yet precisely how they relate to each other, especially across his Critical philosophy, is less clear. In this article, I consider the relationship between what Kant calls the “power of imagination” (Einbildungskraft) and the “power of judgment” (Urteilskraft). I argue for the following claim: insofar as the power of judgment is the faculty of thinking particulars under universals, the power of imagination is the faculty of producing and providing particulars for judgment—either to reflect on or to subsume under universals. Such an account reveals that our capacity for imagination is intimately bound up with our capacity to judge.