SPONTANEITY

[A50/B74] For Kant, spontaneity is one of the "two fundamental sources of the mind...[from which] our knowledge springs", the other being receptivity, the capacity of receiving representations. He defines spontaneity as "the power of knowing an object through these [given] representations" it is "spontaneity in the production of concepts". Intuition and concepts "constitute...the elements of all our knowledge", with spontaneity being the power to employ concepts, and receptivity that of receiving intuitions.