The thing-in-itself, in terms of what it represents, is not a figment of reason’s imagination—it’s a real thing out there. — Bob Ross
Yeah see, this is, on it's face, a totally contradictory set of claims. It represents nothing, unless there is a real thing to which you are referring. In which case, it represents
that. It can't really cut both ways. This is one of my personal gripes with the CRP that makes it come apart in some of its most important aspects. This reply would go to a couple of your further paras too.
In the first, you were denying that there is a medium by which we experience — Bob Ross
False. If that's what you got, I cannot, on review, see how.
For Kant, of course there is: it is the way we sense and cognize that provides that disconnect. — Bob Ross
This would clearly provide a
connection. And it certainly does for Kant.
for two different external objects per external object — Bob Ross
No. I did not say this, or imply it. I was very clearly speaking about hte 'object of perception' in contrast to whatever caused that perception. I am saying that seeing a true disconnect (i.e "it is not out there" as you put it) is unparsimonious speculation that I find pretty unfortunate.
If you agree that the something which excited your senses cannot be known from the perception intuited and cognized from the sensations of it — Bob Ross
I don't really. That's just the way the thing-in-itself has been spoken about over time. I don't think this was the intention, necessarily, though it is where Kant left it. I also think it's
wrong. But that's not an argument about CRP or it's contents. Just that I think this.
then it plainly follows that what you are calling ‘coffee’ only holds intelligibility insofar as it is phenomena and not noumena — Bob Ross
No. And i gave the specific reason for this 'no'. Unless you accept a total disconnect between the thing-in-itself and hte perception (i.e you speculate that empirically, they are simply not the same thing - not that we can't know this, but that it is the case that they are not hte same thing) then there is simply no reason whatsoever to assume the object which causes perceptions would be significantly different to the perception. I see nothing to support that contention, other than saying "its beyond our knowledge, and so it (depending on which of your posts I take as your position) it doesn't exist" or ".. it is something other than that which you have perceived". Neither of these is tenable, to me.
a priori modes of cognizing reality — Bob Ross
Which may in fact simply be informations from objects "out there". See how weak this contention is?
When you work backwards from your experience of the coffee to whatever excited your senses to have that experience of it, you end up with a perfectly unknowable ‘thing-in-itself’. That’s how it should be. — Bob Ross
I think you're perhaps not quite understanding what's being said here. No one is working backwards. One is stepping back. There is no directionality. That's kind of the basis for what I'm saying. There is no hierarchy of the primacy of either our perception of the object, or hte object and this is all Kant can really give us. And I accept that. We can't possibly put one before the other without either dismissing our experience, or pretending it is caused by literally nothing. I know you're not saying those things, which is why I posit you're not quite groking me - which is probably my fault. But I note you've made a moral call here. There is no 'should'. There is discussion. LOL.
Then, you must demonstrate how any phenomenal property of the coffee is a property of the coffee-in-itself — Bob Ross
No. No I don't.
the very concept of a ‘coffee’ is only distinguishable from the generic ‘thing’ insofar as it is already conditioned by the a priori means of cognizing it — Bob Ross
I thikn you're nearly getting it, now. Weirdly, you seem to be
claiming the opposite of hte clear inference from this assertion. Namely, that the two objects must be inextricably linked. Given the mode of perception, there is literally no reason to think the object would be significantly different to the perception. Pretend you couldn't possibly know, all you want. That creates no reason to
assume, in ignorance, that there's any major disconnect.
That’s why Kant never says “coffee-in-itself” or anything similar, but always ‘thing-in-itself’: it has to be that generic. — Bob Ross
I did cover this, in noting he would never use the term 'thing' other than to describe to generic concept
of "a thing". Generic. This does nothing for either side of the conflict, in my view. That's just something Kant did to avoid going beyond hte bounds of knowledge. Unfortunately, to my mind, he absolutely failed in guarding against over-extension by making
claims about the thing in itself (some, you've reiterated well here).