How big? How fast? Transcendental Reflections on Space, Time and World Models

Abstract

Of what does the size of spatially and temporally extended phenomena consist? The particular, non-conceptual magnitude of a spatial thing is a determinate, world-defining unit size. Correspondingly, natural objects have a definite size in relation to embodied human subjectivity as a global ‘measure of worlds’. As displayed by the occurrence of global models in human life, this relation has an irreducibly indexical character. The particular temporal extension of events is intrinsic to human experience as well – albeit in a different way. As displayed in local models only, it is a conceivable object of practical but not of propositional knowledge. In its role as a global spatial measure, somehow the human body is more than one among the many possible objects of descriptive knowledge. This role is supplied by rational agency – which is then a condition of the world.