From Imagination to Intuition in Heidegger’s Interpretation of Kant: Human Finitude as an Obstacle to the Danger Lurking in the A Priori

In his text Die Frage nach dem Ding, Heidegger offers an analysis of Kant’s thought that highlights the role of sensible intuition. This constitutes a shift in focus from his interpretation in Kant und das Problem der Metaphysik, where transcendental imagination is the center of attention. In this paper, I provide an analysis of the reason for this change, suggesting that it is linked to an intensification of Heidegger’s concern for human finitude in relation to the notion of “creation”, which in turn responds to the fact that, by the mid-1930s, Heidegger realizes that thinking of being as the a priori carries a danger. This lies in the fact that being thus thought can detach itself from what is given in everyday experience and become determined by pure reason alone, thus turning into a representation against experience, characteristic of modern scientific thinking and whose ultimate aspiration is the creation of existence.