Note 12 — Chapter X

The drift of the passage would seem to be this: 'If we are to present to ourselves an instance of a quantity, we must successively combine similar units until they form a quantity. This process involves the thought of a successive process by which we add units according to the conception of a quantity. This thought is the thought of number, and since by it we present to ourselves an instance of a quantity, it is the schema of quantity.' But if this be its drift, considerations of sense demand that it should be rewritten, at least to the following extent: 'If we are to present to ourselves an instance of a particular quantity [which will really be a particular number, for it must be regarded as discrete, (cf. B. 212, M. 128 fin., 129 init.)] e. g. three, we must successively combine units until they form that quantity. This process involves the thought of a successive process, by which we add units according to the conception of that quantity. This thought is the thought of a particular number, and since by it we present to ourselves an instance of that quantity, this thought is the schema of that quantity.' If this rewriting be admitted to be necessary, it must be allowed that Kant has confused (a) the thoughts of particular quantities and of particular numbers with those of quantity and of number in general respectively, (b) the thought of a particular quantity with that of a particular number (for the process referred to presupposes that the particular quantity taken is known to consist of a number of equal units) and (c) the thought of counting with that of number.