Immanuel Kant's Critique of Pure Reason — trans. F. Max Müller
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of what cannot be represented in intuition a [p. 721] priori (perceptions). They can never represent any one of their concepts a priori^ but can do this only a posteriori, that is, by means of experience, which itself becomes possible according to those synthetical principles only.
If we are to form a synthetical judgment of any concept, we must proceed beyond that concept to the intuition in which it is given. For if we kept within that which is given in the concept, the judgment could only be analytical and an explanation of the concept, in accordance with what we have conceived in it. I may, however, pass from the conception to the pure or empirical intuition which corresponds to it, in order thus to consider it in concreto, and thus to discover what belongs to the object of the concept, whether a priori or a posteriori. The former consists in rational or mathematical knowledge, arrived at by the construction of the concept, the latter in the purely empirical (mechanical) knowledge which can never supply us with necessary and apodictic propositions. Thus I might analyse my empirical concept of gold, without gaining anything beyond * being able to enumerate everything that I can really think by this word. This might yield a logical improvement of my knowledge, but no increase or addition. If, however, I take the material which is known by the name of gold, I can make observations on it, and these will yield me different synthetical, but empirical [p. 722] propositions. Again, I might construct the mathematical concept of a triangle, that is, give it a priori in intuition, and gain in this manner a synthetical but rational knowledge of it. But when the transcendental concept
580 Discipline of Pure Reason of a reality, a substance, a power, etc., is given me, that concept denotes neither an empirical nor a pure intuition, but merely the synthesis of empirical intuitions, which, being empirical, cannot be given a priori. No determining synthetical proposition therefore can spring from it, because the synthesis cannot a priori pass beyond to the intuition that corresponds to it, but only a principle of the synthesis ^ of possible empirical intuitions.
A transcendental proposition, therefore, is synthetical knowledge acquired by reason, according to mere concepts ; and it is discursive, because through it alone synthetical unity of empirical knowledge becomes possible, while it cannot give us any intuition a priori.
We see, therefore, that reason is used in two [p. 723] ways which, though they share in common the generality of their knowledge and its production a priori, yet diverge considerably afterwards, because in each phenomenon (and no object can be given us, except as a phenomenon), there are two elements, the form of intuition (space and time), which can be known and determined entirely a priori, and the matter (the physical) or the contents, something which exists in space and time, and therefore contains an existence corresponding to sensation. As regards the latter, which can never be given in a definite form except empirically, we can have nothing a priori except indefinite concepts of the synthesis of pos1 In the concept of cause I really pass beyond the empirical concept of an event, but not to the intuition which represents the concept of cause in concreto, but to the conditions of time in general, which in experience might be found in accordance with the concept of cause. I therefore proceed here, according to concepts only, but cannot proceed by means of the construction of concepts, because the concept is only a rule for the synthesis of perceptions, which are not pure intuitions, and therefore cannot be given a priori.
Discipline of Pure Reason 581
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