Nature et fonctions du pouvoir de représenter chez Johann Nikolaus Tetens

Abstract

In his Philosophical Essays, Johann Nikolaus Tetens (1736-1807) distinguishes three main functions of the power of representing (perceiving, reproducing, inventing) to which relate, respectively, the faculty of apprehension, imagination (or, reproducing fantasy) and the power of invention. For each of these faculties it appears that the power of representing is essentially synthetic: perception makes the synthesis of the continuum, unifying the diversity of impressions, imagination creates new links between pre-existing representations and the power of invention shapes new images, transforming the representations kept in memory and uniting them in one simple representation. Thus, we can argue that a triple synthesis of the power of representing does exist thanks to which all our representations are made. Tetens raises the question of whether these three faculties could be brought down to one fundamental force. We will wonder to what extend Tetens’ triple synthesis could be related to Kant’s as it is presented in his transcendental deduction of 1781. Moreover, we will point out similarities between the concept of general image (or sensible abstraction) in Tetens’ work and the concept of (empirical) scheme by Kant.

Keywords

• Tetens
• representation
• imagination
• synthesis
• Kant
• Johann Nikolaus Tetens