Kant on Space

Space is one of the more interesting a priori ideas that Kant examines. His view of space is different from how I viewed the concept of space. Space, for me, found itself in the manifestation of the concept of distance and measurement. For Kant space is not like this at all. Space is simply seen by Kant as a condition that allows for all external empirical perception to occur. Space is made apparent to us through things that reside within it, or rather, because we can perceive things outside ourselves that necessarily need to have space to be perceived. Kant states that space is an, "a priori representation, which necessarily underlines outer appearances" (Kant 68). Essentially, space is a priori due to the fact that it is an entity that cannot be empirically evaluated. For example, Kant says that, "We can never represent to ourselves the absence of space, though we can quite well think it as empty of objects" (Kant 68). Thus, while we can imagine empty "space" we cannot imagine external objects as existing in a state without space. Thus, space to Kant is a thing that enables the perception of all external objects, and it is a priori due to the fact that we cannot empirically understand its existence, and yet we would be utterly unable to distinguish external objects without it.