James asked:

Kant, as I understand him, claims that time does not necessarily exist as a thing independent of the
mind, but rather as a property of the mind itself and its way of apprehending the world.

It seems quite obvious to me that for mind to exist, a state of change must first exist. Whether mind is
material or spiritual, it must have form of some kind (only the metaphysical nature of the substance of
mind seems to be in question as far as the idealism versus materialism, monism versus dualism
debate is concerned). Thinking, as a process, requires a continual change in form. If time stopped,
the form of the mind would necessarily cease changing, which suggests that mind would cease to
exist, or at least all thinking as we know it would cease. Since time seems to be a necessarily
pre-existing condition for the existence of mind, it must be more metaphysically fundamental than
mind, and also independent of it. Mind exists in time, not the reverse.

For form of any kind to exist, space must exist. For change to occur, time must exist. Mind has form
and is continually changing, therefore the existence of mind requires the existence of space and time,
and mind is metaphysically less fundamental than space and time.

Does this refute the Kantian view of time? Or am I misunderstanding Kant?

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Kant would accept that if time ceased to exist the mind would cease to exist not because time is
metaphysically prior, simply because time is a way of apprehending the world. The end of time means
the end of mind.

Any changes prior to the existence of mind would occur in the noumenal world of which we have no
knowledge. Presumably, in the noumenal world there are conditions for change which we could not
understand.

The form of the mind is not spatial. The mind is directed at the world, and space is a way in which we
apprehend the world but is possible for the mind to exist without a body that occupies space: A
non-spatial being like a ghost could have a mind.

To refute Kant you simply hold that time and space are not ways in which we understand the world
but are actually out there, and this is proven by physicists. However, consciousness is outside the
realm of physical space and time. There is space and time that physicists know, and how it appears
to us.

Rachel Browne