THE TRANSCENDENTAL DEDUCTION OF THE CATEGORIES
The aim of the _Transcendental Deduction_ is to show that the
categories, though _a priori_ as originating in the understanding, are
valid, i. e. applicable to individual things. It is the part of the
_Critique_ which has attracted most attention and which is the most
difficult to follow. The difficulty of interpretation is increased
rather than diminished by the complete rewriting of this portion in
the second edition. For the second version, though it does not imply
a change of view, is undoubtedly even more obscure than the first.
It indeed makes one new contribution to the subject by adding an
important link in the argument,[1] but the importance of the link
is nullified by the fact that it is not really the link which it
professes to be. The method of treatment adopted here will be to
consider only the minimum of passages necessary to elucidate Kant's
meaning and to make use primarily of the first edition.
[1] Cf. p. 206-10.
It is necessary, however, first to consider the passage in the
_Metaphysical Deduction_ which nominally connects the list of
categories with the list of forms of judgement.[2] For its real
function is to introduce a new and third account of knowledge, which
forms the keynote of the _Transcendental Deduction_.[3]
[2] B. 102-5, M. 62-3. Cf. pp. 155-6.
[3] The first two accounts are (1) that of judgement given B.
92-4, M. 56-8, and (2) that of judgement implicit in the view
that the forms of judgement distinguished by Formal Logic are
functions of unity. In A. 126, Mah. 215, Kant seems to
imply--though untruly--that this new account coincides with
the other two, which he does not distinguish.
In this passage, the meaning of which it is difficult to state
satisfactorily, Kant's thought appears to be as follows: 'The activity
of thought studied by Formal Logic relates by way of judgement
conceptions previously obtained by an analysis of perceptions. For
instance, it relates the conceptions of body and of divisibility,
obtained by analysis of perceptions of bodies, in the judgement
'Bodies are divisible'. It effects this, however, merely by analysis
of the conception 'body'. Consequently, the resulting knowledge or
judgement, though _a priori_, is only analytic, and the conceptions
involved originate not from thought but from the manifold previously
analysed. But besides the conceptions obtained by analysis of a given
manifold, there are others which belong to thought or the
understanding as such, and in virtue of which thought originates
synthetic _a priori_ knowledge, this activity of thought being that
studied by Transcendental Logic. Two questions therefore arise.
Firstly, how do these conceptions obtain a matter to which they can
apply and without which they would be without content or empty? And,
secondly, how does thought in virtue of these conceptions originate
synthetic _a priori_ knowledge? The first question is easily answered,
for the manifolds of space and time, i. e. individual spaces and
individual times, afford matter of the kind needed to give these
conceptions content. As perceptions (i. e. as objects of perception),
they are that to which a conception can apply, and as pure or _a
priori_ perceptions, they are that to which those conceptions can
apply which are pure or _a priori_, as belonging to the understanding.
The second question can be answered by considering the process by
which this pure manifold of space and time enters into knowledge. All
synthetic knowledge, whether empirical or _a priori_, requires the
realization of three conditions. In the first place, there must be a
manifold given in perception. In the second place, this manifold must
be 'gone through, taken up, and combined'. In other words, if
synthesis be defined as 'the act of joining different representations
to one another and of including their multiplicity in one knowledge',
the manifold must be subjected to an act of synthesis. This is
effected by the imagination. In the third place, this synthesis
produced by the imagination must be brought to a conception, i. e.
brought under a conception which will constitute the synthesis a
unity. This is the work of the understanding. The realization of _a
priori_ knowledge, therefore, will require the realization of the
three conditions in a manner appropriate to its _a priori_ character.
There must be a pure or _a priori_ manifold; this is to be found in
individual spaces and individual times. There must be an act of pure
synthesis of this manifold; this is effected by the pure imagination.
Finally, this pure synthesis must be brought under a conception. This
is effected by the pure understanding by means of its pure or a priori
conceptions, i. e. the categories. This, then, is the process by which
_a priori_ knowledge is originated. The activity of thought or
understanding, however, which unites two conceptions in a judgement by
analysis of them--this being the act studied by Formal Logic--is the
same as that which gives unity to the synthesis of the pure manifold
of perception--this being the act studied by Transcendental Logic.
Consequently, 'the same understanding, and indeed by the same
activities whereby in dealing with conceptions it unifies them in a
judgement by an act of analysis, introduces by means of the
synthetical unity which it produces in the pure manifold of perception
a content into its own conceptions, in consequence of which these
conceptions are called pure conceptions of the understanding,'[4] and
we are entitled to say _a priori_ that these conceptions apply to
objects because they are involved in the process by which we acquire
_a priori_ knowledge of objects.'
[4] An interpretation of B. 105 init., M. 63 fin.
A discussion of the various difficulties raised by the general drift
of this passage, as well as by its details,[5] is unnecessary, and
would anticipate discussion of the _Transcendental Deduction_. But it
is necessary to draw attention to three points.
[5] E. g. Kant's arbitrary assertion that the operation of
counting presupposes the conception of that number which
forms the scale of notation adopted as the source of the
unity of the synthesis. This is of course refuted among other
ways by the fact that a number of units less than the scale
of notation can be counted.
In the first place, as has been said, Kant here introduces--and
introduces without warning--a totally new account of knowledge. It has
its origin in his theory of perception, according to which knowledge
begins with the production of sensations in us by things in
themselves. Since the spatial world which we come to know consists in
a multiplicity of related elements, it is clear that the isolated data
of sensation have somehow to be combined and unified, if we are to
have this world before us or, in other words, to know it. Moreover,
since these empirical data are subject to space and time as the forms
of perception, individual spaces and individual times, to which the
empirical data will be related, have also to be combined and unified.
On this view, the process of knowledge consists in combining certain
data into an individual whole and in unifying them through a principle
of combination.[6] If the data are empirical, the resulting knowledge
will be empirical; if the data are _a priori_, i. e. individual spaces
and individual times, the resulting knowledge will be _a priori_.[7]
This account of knowledge is new, because, although it treats
knowledge as a process or act of unifying a manifold, it describes a
different act of unification. As Kant first described the faculty of
judgement,[8] it unifies a group of particulars through relation to
the corresponding universal. As Formal Logic, according to Kant,
treats the faculty of judgement, it unifies two conceptions or two
prior judgements into a judgement. As Kant now describes the faculty
of judgement or thought, it unifies an empirical or an _a priori_
manifold of perception combined into an individual whole, through a
conception which constitutes a principle of unity. The difference
between this last account and the others is also shown by the fact
that while the first two kinds of unification are held to be due to
mere analysis of the material given to thought, the third kind of
unification is held to be superinduced by thought, and to be in no way
capable of being extracted from the material by analysis. Further,
this new account of knowledge does not replace the others, but is
placed side by side with them. For, according to Kant, there exist
_both_ the activity of thought which relates two conceptions in a
judgement,[9] _and_ the activity by which it introduces a unity of its
own into a manifold of perception. Nevertheless, this new account of
knowledge, or rather this account of a new kind of knowledge, must be
the important one; for it is only the process now described for the
first time which produces synthetic as opposed to analytic knowledge.
[6] Cf. A. 97, Mah. 193, 'Knowledge is a totality of compared
and connected representations.'
[7] No doubt Kant would allow that at least some categories,
e. g. the conception of cause and effect, are principles of
synthesis of a manifold which at any rate contains an
empirical element, but it _includes_ just one of the
difficulties of the passage that it implies that _a priori_
knowledge either is, or involves, a synthesis of pure or _a
priori_ elements.
[8] B. 92-4, M. 56-8.
[9] Kant, of course, thinks of this activity of thought,
as identical with that which brings particulars under a
conception.
In the second place, the passage incidentally explains why, according
to Kant, the forms of judgement distinguished by Formal Logic do not
involve the categories.[10] For its doctrine is that while thought, if
exercised under the conditions under which it is studied by Formal
Logic, can only analyse the manifold given to it, and so has, as it
were, to borrow from the manifold the unity through which it relates
the manifold,[11] yet if an _a priori_ manifold be given to it, it can
by means of a conception introduce into the manifold a unity of its
own which could not be discovered by analysis of the manifold. Thus
thought as studied by Formal Logic merely analyses and consequently
does not and cannot make use of conceptions of its own; it can use
conceptions of its own only when an _a priori_ manifold is given to it
to deal with.
[10] Cf. pp. 155-6.
[11] In bringing perceptions under a conception, thought,
according to Kant, finds the conception _in_ the perceptions
by analysis of them, and in relating two conceptions in
judgement, it determines the particular form of judgement by
analysis of the conceptions.
In the third place, there is great difficulty in following the part in
knowledge assigned to the understanding. The synthesis of the manifold
of perception is assigned to the imagination, a faculty which, like
the new kind of knowledge, is introduced without notice. The business
of the understanding is to 'bring this synthesis to conceptions' and
thereby to 'give unity to the synthesis'. Now the question arises
whether 'the activity of giving unity to the synthesis' really means
what it says, i. e. an activity which _unifies_ or _introduces a unity
into_ the synthesis, or whether it only means an activity which
_recognizes_ a unity already given to the synthesis by the
imagination. Prima facie Kant is maintaining that the understanding
really unifies, or introduces the principle of unity. For the
twice-repeated phrase 'give unity to the synthesis' seems unmistakable
in meaning, and the important role in knowledge is plainly meant to be
assigned to the understanding. Kant's language, however, is not
decisive; for he speaks of the synthesis of the manifold as that which
'first produces a knowledge which indeed at first may be crude and
confused and therefore needs _analysis_[12]', and he says of the
conceptions which give unity to the synthesis that 'they consist
solely in the _representation_[13] of this necessary synthetical
unity'.[14] Again, 'to bring the synthesis to a conception' may well
be understood to mean 'to recognize the synthesis as an instance of
the conception'; and, since Kant is speaking of knowledge, 'to give
unity to the synthesis' may only mean 'to give unity to the synthesis
_for us_', i. e. 'to make us aware of its unity'. Moreover,
consideration of what thought can possibly achieve with respect to a
synthesis presented to it by the imagination renders it necessary to
hold that the understanding only recognizes the unity of the
synthesis. For if a synthesis has been effected, it must have been
effected in accordance with a principle of construction or synthesis,
and therefore it would seem that the only work left for the
understanding is to discover the principle latent in the procedure of
the imagination. At any rate, if the synthesis does not involve a
principle of synthesis, it is impossible to see how thought can
subsequently introduce a principle. The imagination, then, must be
considered to have already introduced the principle of unity into the
manifold by combining it in accordance with a conception or principle
of combination, and the work of the understanding must be considered
to consist in recognizing that the manifold has been thereby combined
and unified through the conception. We are therefore obliged to accept
one of two alternatives. _Either_ the understanding merely renders the
mind conscious of the procedure of a faculty different from itself,
viz. the imagination, in which case the important role in knowledge,
viz. the effecting of the synthesis according to a principle, is
played by a faculty different from the understanding; _or_ the
imagination is the understanding working unreflectively, and the
subsequent process of bringing the synthesis to a conception is merely
a process by which the understanding becomes conscious of its own
procedure. Moreover, it is the latter alternative which we must accept
as more in accordance with the general tenor of Kant's thought. For
the synthesis of the imagination is essentially the outcome of
activity or spontaneity, and, as such, it belongs to the understanding
rather than to the sensibility; in fact we find Kant in one place
actually saying that 'it is one and the same spontaneity which at one
time under the name of imagination, at another time under that of
understanding, introduces connexion into the manifold of
perception'.[15] Further, it should be noted that since the
imagination must be the understanding working unreflectively, and
since it must be that which introduces unity into the manifold, there
is some justification for his use of language which implies that the
understanding is the source of the unity, though it will not be so in
the sense in which the passage under discussion might at first sight
lead us to suppose.
[12] The italics are mine.
[13] The italics are mine.
[14] Cf. the description of the imagination as 'blind'.
[15] B. 162 note, M. 99 note. Cf. B. 152, M. 93. Similarly at
one point in the passage under discussion (B. 102 fin., M. 62
med.) the synthesis is expressly attributed to the
spontaneity of thought.
We can now turn to the argument of the _Transcendental Deduction_
itself. Kant introduces it in effect by raising the question, 'How is
it that, beginning with the isolated data of sense, we come to acquire
knowledge?' His aim is to show (1) that knowledge requires the
performance of certain operations by the mind upon the manifold of
sense; (2) that this process is a condition not merely of knowledge,
but also of self-consciousness; and (3) that, since the manifold is
capable of entering into knowledge, and since we are capable of being
self-conscious, the categories, whose validity is implied by this
process, are valid.
Kant begins by pointing out[16] that all knowledge, _a priori_ as well
as empirical, requires the manifold, produced successively in the
mind, to be subjected to three operations.
[16] A. 95-104, Mah. 194-8.
1. Since the elements of the manifold are as given mere isolated
units, and since knowledge is the apprehension of a unity of connected
elements, the mind must first run through the multiplicity of sense
and then grasp it together into a whole, i. e. into an image.[17]
This act is an act of synthesis; it is called 'the synthesis of
apprehension' and is ascribed to the imagination. It must be carried
out as much in respect of the pure or _a priori_ elements of space and
time as in respect of the manifold of sensation, for individual spaces
and times contain a multiplicity which, to be apprehended, must be
combined.[18] The necessity of this act of synthesis is emphasized in
the second edition. "We cannot represent anything as combined in the
object without having previously combined it ourselves. Of all
representations, _combination_ is the only one which cannot be given
through objects,[19] but can be originated only by the subject itself
because it is an act of its own activity."[20]
[17] Cf. A. 120, Mah. 211.
[18] 'Combine' is used as the verb corresponding to
'synthesis'.
[19] I. e. given to us through the operation of things in
themselves upon our sensibility.
[20] B. 130, M. 80.
2. Since the data of perception are momentary, and pass away with
perception, the act of grasping them together requires that the mind
shall reproduce the past data in order to combine them with the
present datum. "It is plain that if I draw a line in thought, or wish
to think of the time from one midday to another, or even to represent
to myself a certain number, I must first necessarily grasp in thought
these manifold representations one after another. But if I were
continually to lose from my thoughts the preceding representations
(the first parts of the line, the preceding parts of time or the units
successively represented), and were not to reproduce them, while I
proceeded to the succeeding parts, there could never arise a complete
representation, nor any of the thoughts just named, not even the first
and purest fundamental representations of space and time."[21] This
act of reproduction is called 'the synthesis of reproduction in the
imagination'.[22]
[21] A. 102, Mah. 197.
[22] The term 'synthesis' is undeserved, and is due to a
desire to find a verbal parallel to the 'synthesis of
apprehension in perception'. For the inappropriateness of
'reproduction' and of 'imagination' see pp. 239-41.
Further, the necessity of reproduction brings to light a
characteristic of the synthesis of apprehension. "It is indeed only an
empirical law, according to which representations which have often
followed or accompanied one another in the end become associated, and
so form a connexion, according to which, even in the absence of the
object, one of these representations produces a transition of the mind
to another by a fixed rule. But this law of reproduction presupposes
that phenomena themselves are actually subject to such a rule, and
that in the manifold of their representations there is a concomitance
or sequence, according to a fixed rule; for, without this, our
empirical imagination would never find anything to do suited to its
capacity, and would consequently remain hidden within the depths of
the mind as a dead faculty, unknown to ourselves. If cinnabar were now
red, now black, now light, now heavy, if a man were changed now into
this, now into that animal shape, if our fields were covered on the
longest day, now with fruit, now with ice and snow, then my empirical
faculty of imagination could not even get an opportunity of thinking
of the heavy cinnabar when there occurred the representation of red
colour; or if a certain name were given now to one thing, now to
another, or if the same thing were called now by one and now by
another name, without the control of some rule, to which the phenomena
themselves are already subject, no empirical synthesis of reproduction
could take place."
"There must then be something which makes this very reproduction of
phenomena possible, by being the _a priori_ foundation of a necessary
synthetical unity of them. But we soon discover it, if we reflect that
phenomena are not things in themselves, but the mere play of our
representations, which in the end resolve themselves into
determinations of our internal sense. For if we can prove that even
our purest _a priori_ perceptions afford us no knowledge, except so
far as they contain such a combination of the manifold as renders
possible a thoroughgoing synthesis of reproduction, then this
synthesis of imagination is based, even before all experience, on _a
priori_ principles, and we must assume a pure transcendental synthesis
of the imagination which lies at the foundation of the very
possibility of all experience (as that which necessarily presupposes
the reproducibility of phenomena)."[23]
[23] A. 100-2, Mah. 195-7.
In other words, the faculty of reproduction, if it is to get to work,
presupposes that the elements of the manifold are parts of a
necessarily related whole; or, as Kant expresses it later, it
presupposes the _affinity_ of phenomena; and this affinity in turn
presupposes that the synthesis of apprehension by combining the
elements of the manifold on certain principles makes them parts of a
necessarily related whole.[24]
[24] Cf. A. 113, Mah. 205; A. 121-2, Mah. 211-12; and Caird,
i. 362-3. For a fuller account of these presuppositions, and
for a criticism of them, cf. Ch. IX, p. 219 and ff.
3. Kant introduces the third operation, which he calls 'the synthesis
of recognition in the conception',[25] as follows:
[25] This title also is a misnomer due to the desire to give
parallel titles to the three operations involved in
knowledge. There is really only one synthesis referred to,
and the title here should be 'the recognition of the
synthesis in the conception'.
"Without consciousness that what we are thinking is identical with
what we thought a moment ago, all reproduction in the series of
representations would be in vain. For what we are thinking would be a
new representation at the present moment, which did not at all belong
to the act by which it was bound to have been gradually produced, and
the manifold of the same would never constitute a whole, as lacking
the unity which only consciousness can give it. If in counting I
forget that the units which now hover before my mind have been
gradually added by me to one another, I should not know the generation
of the group through this successive addition of one to one, and
consequently I should not know the number, for this conception
consists solely in the consciousness of this unity of the synthesis."
"The word 'conception'[26] might itself lead us to this remark. For
it is this _one_ consciousness which unites the manifold gradually
perceived and then also reproduced into one representation. This
consciousness may often be only weak, so that we connect it with the
production of the representation only in the result but not in the act
itself, i. e. immediately; but nevertheless there must always be one
consciousness, although it lacks striking clearness, and without it
conceptions, and with them knowledge of objects, are wholly
impossible."[27]
[26] _Begriff._
[27] A. 103-4, Mah. 197-8.
Though the passage is obscure and confused, its general drift is
clear. Kant, having spoken hitherto only of the operation of the
imagination in apprehension and reproduction, now wishes to introduce
the understanding. He naturally returns to the thought of it as that
which recognizes a manifold as unified by a conception, the manifold,
however, being not a group of particulars unified through the
corresponding universal or conception, but the parts of an individual
image, e. g. the parts of a line or the constituent units of a number,
and the conception which unifies it being the principle on which these
parts are combined.[28] His main point is that it is not enough for
knowledge that we should combine the manifold of sense into a whole in
accordance with a specific principle,[29] but we must also be in some
degree conscious of our continuously identical act of combination,[30]
this consciousness being at the same time a consciousness of the
special unity of the manifold. For the conception which forms the
principle of the combination has necessarily two sides; while from our
point of view it is the principle according to which we combine and
which makes our combining activity one, from the point of view of the
manifold it is the special principle[31] by which the manifold is made
_one_. If I am to count a group of five units, I must not only add
them, but also be conscious of my continuously identical act of
addition, this consciousness consisting in the consciousness that I am
successively taking units up to, and only up to, five, and being at
the same time a consciousness that the units are acquiring the unity
of being a group of five. It immediately follows, though Kant does not
explicitly say so, that all knowledge implies self-consciousness. For
the consciousness that we have been combining the manifold on a
certain definite principle is the consciousness of our identity
throughout the process, and, from the side of the manifold, it is just
that consciousness of the manifold as unified by being brought under a
conception which constitutes knowledge. Even though it is Kant's view
that the self-consciousness need only be weak and need only arise
after the act of combination, when we are aware of its result, still,
without it, there will be no consciousness of the manifold as unified
through a conception and therefore no knowledge. Moreover, if the
self-consciousness be weak, the knowledge will be weak also, so that
if it be urged that knowledge in the strictest sense requires the full
consciousness that the manifold is unified through a conception, it
must be allowed that knowledge in this sense requires a full or clear
self-consciousness.
[28] Cf. pp. 162-9.
[29] That the combination proceeds on a specific principle
only emerges in this account of the third operation.
[30] Kant's example shows that this consciousness is not the
mere consciousness of the act of combination as throughout
identical, but the consciousness of it as an identical act of
a particular kind.
[31] When Kant says 'this conception [i. e. the conception
of the number counted] consists in the consciousness of this
unity of the synthesis', he is momentarily and contrary to
his usual practice speaking of a conception in the sense
of the activity of conceiving a universal, and not in the
sense of the universal conceived. Similarly in appealing to
the meaning of _Begriff_ (conception) he is thinking of
'conceiving' as the activity of combining a manifold through
a conception.
As is to be expected, however, the passage involves a difficulty
concerning the respective functions of the imagination and the
understanding. Is the understanding represented as only recognizing a
principle of unity introduced into the manifold by the imagination, or
as also for the first time introducing a principle of unity? At first
sight the latter alternative may seem the right interpretation. For he
says that unless we were conscious that what we are thinking is
identical with what we thought a moment ago, 'what we are thinking
would _be_ a new representation which _did not at all belong_ to the
act by which it was bound to have been gradually produced, and the
manifold of the same _would never_ constitute a whole, as lacking the
unity which only _consciousness can give it_.'[32] Again, in speaking
of a conception--which of course implies the understanding--he
says that 'it is this one consciousness which _unites_ the
manifold gradually perceived and then reproduced into _one_
representation'.[33] But these statements are not decisive, for he
uses the term 'recognition' in his formula for the work of the
understanding, and he illustrates its work by pointing out that in
counting we must _remember_ that we have added the units. Moreover,
there is a consideration which by itself makes it necessary to accept
the former interpretation. The passage certainly represents the
understanding as recognizing the identical action of the mind in
combining the manifold on a principle, whether or not it also
represents the understanding as the source of this activity. But if
it were the understanding which combined the manifold, there would
be no synthesis which the imagination could be supposed to have
performed,[34] and therefore it could play no part in knowledge at
all, a consequence which must be contrary to Kant's meaning. Further
if, as the general tenor of the deduction shows, the imagination is
really only the understanding working unreflectively,[35] we are able
to understand why Kant should for the moment cease to distinguish
between the imagination and the understanding, and consequently should
use language which implies that the understanding both combines the
manifold on a principle and makes us conscious of our activity in so
doing. Hence we may say that the real meaning of the passage should
be stated thus: 'Knowledge requires one consciousness which,
as imagination, combines the manifold on a definite principle
constituted by a conception,[36] and, as understanding, is to some
extent conscious of its identical activity in so doing, this
self-consciousness being, from the side of the whole produced by the
synthesis, the consciousness of the conception by which the manifold
is unified.'
[32] The italics are mine. He does not say '_we should not be
conscious_ of what we are thinking as the same representation
and as belonging [Greek: ktl]., _and we should not be
conscious_ of the manifold as constituting a whole.
[33] The italics are mine.
[34] There could not, of course, be two syntheses, the one
being and the other not being upon a principle.
[35] Cf. pp. 168-9.
[36] In view of Kant's subsequent account of the function of
the categories it should be noticed that, according to the
present passage, the conception involved in an act of
knowledge is the conception not of an 'object in general',
but of 'an object of the particular kind which constitutes
the individual whole produced by the combination a whole of
the particular kind that it is of', and that, in accordance
with this, the self-consciousness involved is not the mere
consciousness that our combining activity is identical
throughout, but the consciousness that it is an identical
activity of a particular kind, e. g. that of counting five
units. Cf. pp. 184 fin.-186, 190-2, and 206-7.
Hitherto there has been no mention of an _object_ of knowledge, and
since knowledge is essentially knowledge of an object, Kant's next
task is to give such an account of an object of knowledge as will show
that the processes already described are precisely those which give
our representations, i. e. the manifold of sense, relation to an
object, and consequently yield knowledge.
He begins by raising the question, 'What do we mean by the phrase 'an
object of representations'?'[37] He points out that a phenomenon, since
it is a mere sensuous representation, and not a thing in itself
existing independently of the faculty of representations, is just not
an object. To the question, therefore, 'What is meant by an object
corresponding to knowledge and therefore distinct from it?' we are
bound to answer from the point of view of the distinction between
phenomena and things in themselves, that the object is something in
general = _x_, i. e. the thing in itself of which we know only
_that_ it is and not _what_ it is. There is, however, another point
of view from which we can say something more about an object of
representations and the correspondence of our representations to it,
viz. that from which we consider what is involved in the thought of
the relation of knowledge or of a representation to its object. "We
find that our thought of the relation of all knowledge to its object
carries with it something of necessity, since its object is regarded
as that which prevents our cognitions[38] being determined at random
or capriciously, and causes them to be determined _a priori_ in a
certain way, because in that they are to relate to an object, they
must necessarily also, in relation to it, agree with one another, that
is to say, they must have that unity which constitutes the conception
of an object."[39]
[37] _Vorstellung_ in the present passage is perhaps better
rendered 'idea', but representation has been retained for the
sake of uniformity.
[38] _Erkenntnisse._
[39] A. 104, Mah. 199.
Kant's meaning seems to be this: 'If we think of certain
representations, e. g. certain lines[40] or the representations of
extension, impenetrability, and shape,[41] as related to an object,
e. g. to an individual triangle or an individual body, we think that
they must be mutually consistent or, in other words, that they must
have the unity of being parts of a necessarily related whole or
system, this unity in fact constituting the conception of an object
in general, in distinction from the conception of an object of a
particular kind. The latter thought in turn involves the thought of
the object of representations as that which prevents them being
anything whatever and in fact makes them parts of a system. The
thought therefore of representations as related to an object carries
with it the thought of a certain necessity, viz. the necessary or
systematic unity introduced into the representations by the object.
Hence by an object of representations we mean something which
introduces into the representations a systematic unity which
constitutes the nature of an object in general, and the relatedness of
representations to, or their correspondence with, an object involves
their systematic unity.'[42]
[40] Cf. A. 105, Mah. 199.
[41] Cf. A. 106, Mah. 200.
[42] It may be noticed that possession of the unity of a
system does not really distinguish 'an object' from any other
whole of parts, nor in particular from 'a representation'.
Any whole of parts must be a systematic unity.
Certain points, however, should be noticed. In the _first_ place, Kant
is for the moment tacitly ignoring his own theory of knowledge, in
accordance with which the object proper, i. e. the thing in itself, is
unknowable, and is reverting to the ordinary conception of knowledge
as really _knowledge_ of its object. For the elements which are said,
in virtue of being related to an object, to agree and to have the
unity which constitutes the conception of an object must be elements
of an object which we know; for if the assertion that they agree is
to be significant, they must be determinate parts or qualities of the
object, e. g. the sides of an individual triangle or the
impenetrability or shape of an individual body, and therefore it is
implied that we know that the object has these parts or qualities. In
the _second_ place, both the problem which Kant raises and the clue
which he offers for its solution involve an impossible separation of
knowledge or a representation from its object. Kant begins with the
thought of a phenomenon as a mere representation which, as mental, and
as the representation of an object, is just not an object, and asks,
'What is meant by the object of it?' He finds the clue to the answer
in the thought that though a representation or idea when considered in
itself is a mere mental modification, yet, when considered as related
to an object, it is subject to a certain necessity. In fact, however,
an idea or knowledge is essentially an idea or knowledge of an object,
and we are bound to think of it as such. There is no meaning whatever
in saying that the thought of an idea as related to an object carries
with it something of necessity, for to say so implies that it is
possible to think of it as unrelated to an object. Similarly there is
really no meaning in the question, 'What is meant by an object
corresponding to knowledge or to an idea?' for this in the same way
implies that we can first think of an idea as unrelated to an object
and then ask, 'What can be meant by an object corresponding to
it?'[43] In the _third_ place, Kant only escapes the absurdity
involved in the thought of a mere idea or a mere representation
by treating representations either as parts or as qualities of an
object. For although he speaks of our cognitions,[44] i. e. of our
representations, as being determined by the object, he says that they
must agree, i. e. they must have that unity which constitutes the
conception of an object, and he illustrates representations by the
sides of an individual triangle and the impenetrability and shape of
an individual body, which are just as 'objective' as the objects to
which they relate. The fact is that he really treats a representation
not as his problem requires that it should be treated, i. e. as a
representation of something, but as something represented,[45] i. e.
as something of which we are aware, viz. a part or a quality of an
object. In the _fourth_ place, not only is that which Kant speaks of
as related to an object really not a representation, but also--as we
see if we consider the fact which Kant has in mind--that to which he
speaks of it as related is really not _an_ object but _one and the
same object to which another so-called representation is related_. For
what Kant says is that representations as related to an object must
agree among themselves. But this statement, to be significant, implies
that the object to which various representations are related is _one
and the same_. Otherwise why should the representations agree? In
view, therefore, of these last two considerations we must admit that
the real thought underlying Kant's statement should be expressed thus:
'We find that the thought that _two or more parts or qualities of an
object_ relate to _one and the same object_ carries with it a certain
necessity, since this object is considered to be that which _prevents
these parts or qualities which we know it to possess_ from being
determined at random, because by being related to _one and the same
object_, they must agree among themselves.' The importance of the
correction lies in the fact that what Kant is stating is not what he
thinks he is stating. He is really stating the implication of the
thought that two or more qualities or parts of some object or other,
which, as such, already relate to an object, relate to one and the
same object. He thinks he is stating the implication of the thought
that a representation which in itself has no relation to an object,
has relation to an object. And since his problem is simply to
determine what constitutes the relatedness to an object of that which
in itself is a mere representation, the distinction is important; for
it shows that he really elucidates it by an implication respecting
something which already has relation to an object and is not a mental
modification at all, but a quality or a part of an object.
[43] Cf. pp. 230-3.
[44] _Erkenntnisse._
[45] _Vorgestellt._
Kant continues thus: "But it is clear that, since we have to do only
with the manifold of our representations, and the _x_, which
corresponds to them (the object), since it is to be something distinct
from all our representations, is for us nothing, the unity which the
object necessitates can be nothing else than the formal unity of
consciousness in the synthesis of the manifold of representations."
[I. e. since the object which produces systematic unity in our
representations is after all only the unknown thing in itself, viz.
_x_,[46] any of the parts or qualities of which it is impossible to
know, that to which it gives unity can be only our representations
and not its own parts or qualities. For, since we do not know any
of its parts or qualities, these representations cannot be its
parts or qualities. Consequently, the unity produced by this _x_
can only be the formal unity of the combination of the manifold in
consciousness.[47]] "Then and then only do we say that we know the
object," [i. e. we know that the manifold relates to an object[48]]
"if we have produced synthetical unity in the manifold of perception.
But this unity would be impossible, if the perception could not be
produced by means of such a function of synthesis according to a rule
as renders the reproduction of the manifold a priori necessary, and a
conception in which the manifold unifies itself possible. Thus we
think a triangle as an object, in that we are conscious of the
combination of three straight lines in accordance with a rule by which
such a perception can at any time be presented. This _unity of the
rule_ determines all the manifold and limits it to conditions which
make the unity of apperception possible, and the conception of this
unity is the representation of the object=_x_, which I think through
the aforesaid predicates of a triangle." [I. e., apparently, 'to
conceive this unity of the rule is to represent to myself the object
_x_, i. e. the thing in itself,[49] of which I come to think by means
of the rule of combination.']
[46] Cf. p. 183, note 2.
[47] 'The formal unity' means not the unity peculiar to any
particular synthesis, but the character shared by all
syntheses of being a systematic whole.
[48] The final sense is the same whether 'object' be here
understood to refer to the thing in itself or to a
phenomenon.
[49] A comparison of this passage (A. 104-5, Mah. 198-9) with
A. 108-9, Mah. 201-2 (which seems to reproduce A. 104-5, Mah.
198-9), B. 522-3, M. 309 and A. 250, Mah. 224, seems to
render it absolutely necessary to understand by _x_, and by
the transcendental object, the thing in itself. Cf. also B.
236, M. 143 ('so soon as I raise my conception of an object
to the transcendental meaning thereof, the house is not a
thing in itself but only a phenomenon, i. e. a representation
of which the transcendental object is unknown'), A. 372, Mah.
247 and A. 379, Mah. 253.
In this passage several points claim attention. In the _first_ place,
it seems impossible to avoid the conclusion that in the second
sentence the argument is exactly reversed. Up to this point, it is
the thing in itself which produces unity in our representations.
Henceforward it is we who produce the unity by our activity of
combining the manifold. The discrepancy cannot be explained away, and
its existence can only be accounted for by the exigencies of Kant's
position. When he is asking 'What is meant by the object (beyond the
mind) corresponding to our representations?' he has to think of the
unity of the representations as due to the object. But when he is
asking 'How does the manifold of sense become unified?' his view that
all synthesis is due to the mind compels him to hold that the unity is
produced by us. In the _second_ place, the passage introduces a second
object in addition to the thing in itself, viz. the phenomenal object,
e. g. a triangle considered as a whole of parts unified on a definite
principle.[50] It is this object which, as the object that we know, is
henceforward prominent in the first edition, and has exclusive
attention in the second. The connexion between this object and the
thing in itself appears to lie in the consideration that we are only
justified in holding that the manifold of sense is related to a thing
in itself when we have unified it and therefore know it to be a unity,
and that to know it to be a unity is _ipso facto_ to be aware of it as
related to a phenomenal object; in other words, the knowledge that the
manifold is related to an object beyond consciousness is acquired
through our knowledge of its relatedness to an object within
consciousness. In the _third_ place, in view of Kant's forthcoming
vindication of the categories, it is important to notice that the
process by which the manifold is said to acquire relation to an
object is illustrated by a synthesis on a particular principle which
constitutes the phenomenal object an object of a particular kind. The
synthesis which enables us to recognize three lines as an object is
not a synthesis based on general principles constituted by the
categories, but a synthesis based on the particular principle that the
three lines must be so put together as to form an enclosed space.
Moreover, it should be noticed that the need of a particular principle
is really inconsistent with his view that relation to an object gives
the manifold the systematic unity which constitutes the conception of
an object, or that at least a [Greek: hysteron proteron] is involved.
For if the knowledge that certain representations form a systematic
unity justifies our holding that they relate to an object, it would
seem that in order to know that they relate to an object we need not
know the special character of their unity. Yet, as Kant states the
facts, we really have to know the special character of their unity in
order to know that they possess systematic unity in general.[51]
_Lastly_, it is easy to see the connexion of this account of an object
of representations with the preceding account of the synthesis
involved in knowledge. Kant had said that knowledge requires a
synthesis of the imagination in accordance with a definite principle,
and the recognition of the principle of the synthesis by the
understanding. From this point of view it is clear that the aim of the
present passage is to show that this process yields knowledge of an
object; for it shows that this process yields knowledge of a
phenomenal object of a particular kind, e. g. of a triangle or of a
body, and that this object as such refers to what after all is _the_
object, viz. the thing in itself.
[50] Compare 'The object of our perceptions is merely that
something of which the conception expresses such a necessity
of synthesis' (A. 106, Mah. 200), and 'An object is that in
the conception of which the manifold of a given perception is
united' (B. 137, M. 84). Cf. also A. 108, Mah. 201.
[51] Kant's position is no doubt explained by the fact that
since the object corresponding to our representations is the
thing in itself, and since we only know that this is of the
same kind in the case of every representation, it can only be
thought of as producing systematic unity, and not a unity of
a particular kind. The position is also in part due to the
fact that the principles of synthesis involved by the
phenomenal object are usually thought of by Kant as the
categories; these of course can only contribute a general
kind of unity, and not the special kind of unity belonging to
an individual object.
The position reached by Kant so far is this. Knowledge, as being
knowledge of an object, consists in a process by which the manifold of
perception acquires relation to an object. This process again is a
process of combination of the manifold into a systematic whole upon a
definite principle, accompanied by the consciousness in some degree of
the act of combination, and therefore also of the acquisition by the
manifold of the definite unity which forms the principle of
combination. In virtue of this process there is said to be 'unity of
consciousness in the synthesis of the manifold', a phrase which the
context justifies us in understanding as a condensed expression for a
situation in which (1) the manifold of sense is a unity of necessarily
related parts, (2) there is _consciousness_ of this unity, and (3) the
consciousness which combines and is conscious of combining the
manifold, as being necessarily one and the same throughout this
process, is itself a unity.
Kant then proceeds to introduce what he evidently considers the
keystone of his system, viz. 'transcendental apperception.'
"There is always a transcendental condition at the basis of any
necessity. Hence we must be able to find a transcendental ground of
the unity of consciousness in the synthesis of the manifold of all our
perceptions, and therefore also of the conceptions of objects in
general, consequently also of all objects of experience, a ground
without which it would be impossible to think any object for our
perceptions; for this object is no more than that something, the
conception of which expresses such a necessity of synthesis."
"Now this original and transcendental condition is no other than
_transcendental apperception_. The consciousness of self according to
the determinations of our state in internal sense-perception is merely
empirical, always changeable; there can be no fixed or permanent self
in this stream of internal phenomena, and this consciousness is
usually called _internal sense_ or _empirical apperception_. That
which is _necessarily_ to be represented as numerically identical
cannot be thought as such by means of empirical data. The condition
which is to make such a transcendental presupposition valid must be
one which precedes all experience, and makes experience itself
possible."
"Now no cognitions[52] can occur in us, no combination and unity of
them with one another, without that unity of consciousness which
precedes all data of perception, and by relation to which alone all
representation of objects is possible. This pure original unchangeable
consciousness I shall call _transcendental apperception_. That it
deserves this name is clear from the fact that even the purest
objective unity, viz. that of _a priori_ conceptions (space and time)
is only possible by relation of perceptions to it. The numerical unity
of this apperception therefore forms the _a priori_ foundation of all
conceptions, just as the multiplicity of space and time is the
foundation of the perceptions of the sensibility."[53]
[52] _Erkenntnisse._
[53] A. 106-7, Mah. 200-1.
The argument is clearly meant to be 'transcendental' in character; in
other words, Kant continues to argue from the existence of knowledge
to the existence of its presuppositions. We should therefore expect
the passage to do two things: firstly, to show what it is which is
presupposed by the 'unity of consciousness in the synthesis of the
manifold'[54]; and secondly, to show that this presupposition deserves
the title 'transcendental apperception'. Unfortunately Kant introduces
'transcendental apperception' after the manner in which he introduced
the 'sensibility', the 'imagination' and the 'understanding', as if it
were a term with which every one is familiar, and which therefore
needs little explanation. To interpret the passage, it seems necessary
to take it in close connexion with the preceding account of the three
'syntheses' involved in knowledge, and to bear in mind that, as a
comparison of passages will show, the term 'apperception', which Kant
borrows from Leibniz, always has for Kant a reference to consciousness
of self or self-consciousness. If this be done, the meaning of the
passage seems to be as follows:
[54] We should have expected this to have been already
accomplished. For according to the account already
considered, it is we who by our imagination introduce
necessity into the synthesis of the manifold and by our
understanding become conscious of it. We shall therefore not
be surprised to find that 'transcendental apperception' is
really only ourselves as exercising imagination and
understanding in a new guise.
'To vindicate the existence of a self which is necessarily one and the
same throughout its representations, and which is capable of being
aware of its own identity throughout, it is useless to appeal to that
consciousness of ourselves which we have when we reflect upon our
successive states. For, although in being conscious of our states we
are conscious of ourselves we are not conscious of ourselves as
unchanging. The self as going through successive states is changing,
and even if in fact its states did not change, its identity would be
only contingent; it need not continue unchanged. Consequently, the
only course possible is to show that the self-consciousness in
question is presupposed in any experience or knowledge. Now it is so
presupposed. For, as we have already shown, the relation of
representations to an object presupposes one consciousness which
combines and unifies them, and is at the same time conscious of the
identity of its own action in unifying them. This consciousness is the
ground of the unity of consciousness in the synthesis of the manifold.
It may fairly be called transcendental, because even a conception
which relates to space or time, and therefore is the most remote from
sensation, presupposes one consciousness which combines and unifies
the manifold of space and time through the conception, and is
conscious of the identity of its own action in so doing. It may,
therefore, be regarded as the presupposition of _all_ conceiving or
bringing a manifold under a conception, and therefore of all
knowledge. Consequently, since knowledge is possible, i. e. since the
manifold of representations can be related to an object, there must be
one self capable of being aware of its own identity throughout its
representations.'
At this point of Kant's argument, however, there seems to occur an
inversion of the thought. Hitherto, Kant has been arguing from the
possibility of knowledge to the possibility of the consciousness of
our own identity. But in the next paragraph he appears to reverse this
procedure and to argue from the possibility of self-consciousness to
the possibility of knowledge.
"But it is just this transcendental unity of apperception[55] which
forms, from all possible phenomena which can be together in one
experience, a connexion of them according to laws. For this unity of
consciousness would be impossible, if the mind in the knowledge of the
manifold could not become conscious of the identity of the function
whereby it unites the manifold synthetically in one knowledge.
Consequently, the original and necessary consciousness of the identity
of oneself is at the same time a consciousness of an equally necessary
unity of the synthesis of all phenomena according to conceptions,
i. e. according to rules which not only make them necessarily
reproducible, but thereby determine an object for their perception,
i. e. determine the conception of something in which they are
necessarily connected. For the mind could not possibly think the
identity of itself in the manifold of its representations, and this
indeed _a priori_, if it had not before its eyes the identity of its
action which subjects all synthesis of apprehension (which is
empirical) to a transcendental unity, and first makes possible its
connexion according to rules."
[55] Kant seems here and elsewhere to use the phrase
'transcendental unity of apperception' as synonymous with
'transcendental apperception', the reason, presumably, being
that transcendental apperception is a unity.
The argument seems indisputably to be as follows: 'The mind is
necessarily able to be aware of its own identity throughout its
manifold representations. To be aware of this, it must be aware of the
identity of the activity by which it combines the manifold of
representations into a systematic whole. Therefore it must be capable
of combining, and of being conscious of its activity in combining, all
phenomena which can be its representations into such a whole. But
this process, from the point of view of the representations combined,
is the process by which they become related to an object and so enter
into knowledge. Therefore, since we are capable of being conscious of
our identity with respect to all phenomena which can be our
representations, the process of combination and consciousness of
combination which constitutes knowledge must be possible with respect
to them.' Thus the thought of this and the preceding paragraph seems
to involve a circle. First the possibility of self-consciousness is
deduced from the possibility of knowledge, and then the possibility of
knowledge is deduced from the possibility of self-consciousness.
An issue therefore arises, the importance of which can be seen by
reference to the final aim of the 'deduction', viz. the vindication of
the categories. The categories are 'fundamental conceptions which
enable us to think objects in general[56] for phenomena'[57]; in other
words, they are the principles of the synthesis by which the manifold
of sense becomes related to an object. Hence, if this be granted, the
proof that the categories are applicable to objects consists in
showing that the manifold can be subjected to this synthesis. The
question therefore arises whether Kant's real starting-point for
establishing the possibility of this synthesis and therefore the
applicability of the categories, is to be found in the possibility
of knowledge, or in the possibility of self-consciousness, or in
both. In other words, does Kant start from the position that all
representations must be capable of being related to an object, or
from the position that we must be capable of being conscious of our
identity with respect to all of them, or from both?
[56] _Objecte ueberhaupt_, i. e. objects of any kind in
distinction not from objects of a particular kind but from no
objects at all.
[57] A. 111, Mah. 204
Prima facie the second position is the more plausible basis for the
desired conclusion. On the one hand, it does not seem obvious that the
manifold _must_ be capable of being related to an object; for even if
it be urged that otherwise we should have only 'a random play of
representations, less than a dream'[58], it may be replied, that this
might be or might come to be the case. On the other hand, the fact
that our representations are ours necessarily seems to presuppose that
we are identical subjects of these representations, and recognition of
this fact is the consciousness of our identity.
[58] A. 112, Mah. 204.
If we turn to the text for an answer to this question, we find that
Kant seems not only to use both starting-points, but even to regard
them as equivalents. Thus in introducing the categories[59] Kant
begins by appealing to the necessity for knowledge that
representations should relate to an object.
[59] A. 110-12, Mah. 203-4.
"Unity of synthesis according to empirical conceptions would be purely
contingent, and were these not based on a transcendental ground of
unity, it would be possible for a confused crowd of phenomena to fill
our soul, without the possibility of experience ever arising
therefrom. But then also all relation of knowledge to objects would
fall away, because knowledge would lack connexion according to
universal and necessary laws; it would be thoughtless perception but
never knowledge, and therefore for us as good as nothing."
"The _a priori_ conditions of any possible experience whatever are at
the same time conditions of the possibility of the objects of
experience. Now I assert that the above mentioned _categories_ are
nothing but _the conditions of thinking in any possible experience_,
just as _space and time_ are the _conditions of perception_ requisite
for the same. The former therefore are also fundamental conceptions by
which we think objects in general for phenomena, and are therefore
objectively valid _a priori_--which is exactly what we wished to
know."
The next sentence, however, bases the necessity of the categories on
the possibility of self-consciousness, without giving any indication
that a change of standpoint is involved.
"But the possibility, nay, even the necessity, of these categories
rests on the relation which the whole sensibility, and with it also
all possible phenomena, have to original apperception, a relation
which forces everything to conform to the conditions of the
thoroughgoing unity of self-consciousness, i. e. to stand under
universal functions of synthesis, i. e. of synthesis according to
conceptions, as that wherein alone apperception can prove _a priori_
its thorough-going and necessary identity."
Finally, the conclusion of the paragraph seems definitely to treat
both starting-points as really the same.[60] "Thus the conception of a
cause is nothing but a synthesis (of the consequent in the time series
with other phenomena) _according to conceptions_; and without such a
unity, which has its _a priori_ rule and subjects phenomena to itself,
thorough-going and universal and therefore necessary unity of
consciousness in the manifold of sense-perceptions would not be met
with. But then also these perceptions would belong to no experience,
consequently they would have no object, and would be nothing but a
blind play of representations, less than a dream."
[60] Cf. A. 113, Mah. 205-6 and A. 108-10, Mah. 202-3.
The fact is that since for Kant the synthesis of representations in
accordance with the categories, accompanied by the consciousness of
it, is at once the necessary and sufficient condition of the
relatedness of representations to an object and of the consciousness
of our identity with respect to them, it seems to him to be one and
the same thing whether, in vindicating the synthesis, we appeal to the
possibility of knowledge or to the possibility of self-consciousness,
and it even seems possible to argue, _via_ the synthesis, from
knowledge to self-consciousness and vice versa.
Nevertheless, it remains true that the vindication of the categories
is different, according as it is based upon the possibility of
relating representations to an object or upon the possibility of
becoming self-conscious with respect to them. It also remains true
that Kant vindicates the categories in both ways. For while, in
expounding the three so-called syntheses involved in knowledge, he is
vindicating the categories from the point of view of knowledge, when
he comes to speak of transcendental apperception, of which the central
characteristic is the consciousness of self involved, there is a
shifting of the centre of gravity. Instead of treating representations
as something which can become related to an object, he now treats
them as something of which, as belonging to a self, the self must
be capable of being conscious as its own, and argues that a
synthesis in accordance with the categories is required for this
self-consciousness. It must be admitted then--and the admission is
only to be made with reluctance--that when Kant reaches transcendental
apperception, he really adopts a new starting-point,[61] and that the
passage which introduces transcendental apperception by showing it to
be implied in knowledge[62] only serves to conceal from Kant the fact
that, from the point of view of the deduction of the categories, he is
really assuming without proof the possibility of self-consciousness
with respect to all our representations, as a new basis for argument.
[61] The existence of this new starting-point is more
explicit, A. 116-7 (and note), Mah. 208 (and note), and A.
122, Mah. 212.
[62] A. 107, Mah. 200.
The approach to the categories from the side of self-consciousness is,
however, more prominent in the second edition, and consequently we
naturally turn to it for more light on this side of Kant's position.
There Kant vindicates the necessity of the synthesis from the side of
self-consciousness as follows:[63]
[63] The main clauses have been numbered for convenience of
reference.
"[1.] It must be possible that the 'I think' should accompany all my
representations; for otherwise something would be represented in me
which could not be thought; in other words, the representation would
be either impossible or at least for me nothing. [2.] That
representation which can be given before all thought is called
_perception_. All the manifold of perception has therefore a necessary
relation to the 'I think' in the same subject in which this manifold
is found. [3.] But this representation[64] [i. e. the 'I think'] is an
act of _spontaneity_, i. e. it cannot be regarded as belonging to
sensibility. I call it _pure apperception_, to distinguish it from
_empirical apperception_, or _original apperception_ also, because it
is that self-consciousness which, while it gives birth to the
representation 'I think', which must be capable of accompanying all
others and is one and the same in all consciousness, cannot itself be
accompanied by any other.[65] [4.] I also call the unity of it the
_transcendental_ unity of self-consciousness, in order to indicate the
possibility of _a priori_ knowledge arising from it. For the manifold
representations which are given in a perception would not all of them
be _my_ representations, if they did not all belong to one
self-consciousness, that is, as my representations (even though I am
not conscious of them as such), they must necessarily conform to the
condition under which alone they _can_ stand together in a universal
self-consciousness, because otherwise they would not all belong to me.
From this original connexion much can be concluded."
[64] This is an indisputable case of the use of
representation in the sense of something represented or
presented.
[65] I. e. consciousness of our identity is final; we cannot,
for instance, go further back to a consciousness of the
consciousness of our identity.
[5.] "That is to say, this thorough-going identity of the apperception
of a manifold given in perception contains a synthesis of
representations,[66] and is possible only through the consciousness of
this synthesis.[67] [6.] For the empirical consciousness which
accompanies different representations is in itself fragmentary, and
without relation to the identity of the subject. [7.] This relation,
therefore, takes place not by my merely accompanying every
representation with consciousness, but by my _adding_ one
representation to another, and being conscious of the synthesis of
them. [8.] Consequently, only because I can connect a manifold of
given representations _in one consciousness_, is it possible for me to
represent to myself the _identity of consciousness in these
representations_; i. e. the _analytical_ unity of apperception is
possible only under the presupposition of a _synthetical_ unity. [9.]
The thought, 'These representations given in perception belong all of
them to me' is accordingly just the same as, 'I unite them in one
self-consciousness, or at least can so unite them;' [10.] and although
this thought is not itself as yet the consciousness of the _synthesis_
of representations, it nevertheless presupposes the possibility of
this synthesis; that is to say, it is only because I can comprehend
the manifold of representations in one consciousness, that I call them
all _my_ representations; for otherwise I should have as many-coloured
and varied a self as I have representations of which I am conscious.
[11.] Synthetical unity of the manifold of perceptions, as given _a
priori_, is therefore the ground of the identity of apperception
itself, which precedes _a priori_ all _my_ determinate thinking. [12.]
But connexion does not lie in the objects, nor can it be borrowed from
them through perception and thereby first taken up into the
understanding, but it is always an operation of the understanding
which itself is nothing more than the faculty of connecting _a
priori_, and of bringing the manifold of given representations under
the unity of apperception, which principle is the highest in all human
knowledge."
[66] I understand this to mean 'This through and through
identical consciousness of myself as the identical subject of
a manifold given in perception involves a synthesis of
representations'.
[67] The drift of the passage as a whole (cf. especially
Sec. 16) seems to show that here 'the synthesis of
representations' means 'their connectedness' and not
'the act of connecting them'.
[13.] "Now this principle of the necessary unity of apperception is
indeed an identical, and therefore an analytical, proposition, but
nevertheless it declares a synthesis of the manifold given in a
perception to be necessary, without which the thorough-going identity
of self-consciousness cannot be thought. [14.] For through the Ego, as
a simple representation, is given no manifold content; in perception,
which is different from it, a manifold can only be given, and through
_connexion_ in one consciousness it can be thought. An understanding,
through whose self-consciousness all the manifold would _eo ipso_ be
given, would _perceive_; our understanding can only _think_ and must
seek its perception in the senses. [15.] I am, therefore, conscious of
the identical self, in relation to the manifold of representations
given to me in a perception, because I call all those representations
_mine_, which constitute _one_. [16.] But this is the same as to say
that I am conscious _a priori_ of a necessary synthesis of them, which
is called the original synthetic unity of apperception, under which
all representations given to me stand, but also under which they must
be brought through a synthesis."[68]
[68] B. 131-5, M. 81-4.
Though this passage involves many difficulties, the main drift of it
is clear. Kant is anxious to establish the fact that the manifold of
sense must be capable of being combined on principles, which
afterwards turn out to be the categories, by showing this to be
involved in the fact that we must be capable of being conscious of
ourselves as the identical subject of all our representations. To do
this, he seeks to prove in the first paragraph that self-consciousness
in this sense must be possible, and in the second that this
self-consciousness presupposes the synthesis of the manifold.
Examination of the argument, however, shows that the view that
self-consciousness must be possible is, so far as Kant is
concerned,[69] an assumption for which Kant succeeds in giving no
reason at all, and that even if it be true, it cannot form a basis
from which to deduce the possibility of the synthesis.
[69] Cf. p. 204, note 3.
Before, however, we attempt to prove this, it is necessary to draw
attention to three features of the argument. In the _first_ place, it
implies a somewhat different account of self-consciousness to that
implied in the passages of the first edition which we have already
considered. Self-consciousness, instead of being the consciousness of
the identity of our activity in combining the manifold, is now
primarily the consciousness of ourselves as identical subjects of all
our representations, i. e. it is what Kant calls the analytical unity
of apperception; and consequently it is somewhat differently related
to the activity of synthesis involved in knowledge. Instead of being
regarded as the consciousness of this activity, it is regarded as
presupposing the consciousness of the product of this activity, i. e.
of the connectedness[70] of the manifold produced by the activity,
this consciousness being what Kant calls the synthetical unity of
apperception.[71] In the _second_ place, it is plain that Kant's view
is not that self-consciousness involves the consciousness of our
representations as a connected whole, but that it involves the
consciousness of them as capable of being connected by a synthesis.
Yet, if it is only because I can connect (and therefore apprehend as
connected) a manifold of representations in one consciousness, that I
can represent to myself the identity of consciousness in these
representations, self-consciousness really requires the consciousness
of our representations as _already_ connected; the mere consciousness
of our representations as _capable_ of being connected would not be
enough. The explanation of the inconsistency seems to lie in the fact
that the synthetic unity of which Kant is thinking is the unity
of nature. For, as Kant of course was aware, in our ordinary
consciousness we do not apprehend the interconnexion of the parts
of nature in detail, but only believe that there is such an
interconnexion; consequently he naturally weakened the conclusion
which he ought to have drawn, viz. that self-consciousness presupposes
consciousness of the synthesis, in order to make it conform to the
facts of our ordinary consciousness. Yet, if his _argument_ is
to be defended, its conclusion must be taken in the form that
self-consciousness presupposes consciousness of the actual synthesis
or connexion and not merely of the possibility of it. In the _third_
place, Kant twice in this passage[72] definitely makes the act of
synthesis, which his argument maintains to be the condition of
_consciousness of the identity_ of ourselves, the condition of the
_identity_ of ourselves. The fact is that, on Kant's view, the act of
synthesis of the representations is really a condition of their
belonging to one self, the self being presupposed to be a self capable
of self-consciousness.[73]
[70] More accurately, 'of the possibility of the
connectedness'.
[71] The same view seems implied A. 117-8, Mah. 208. Kant
apparently thinks of this consciousness as also a
self-consciousness (cf. Sec. 9), though it seems that he
should have considered it rather as a condition of
self-consciousness, cf. p. 204, note 2.
[72] Sections 6 and 10.
[73] Cf. pp. 202-3.
We may now turn to the first of the two main points to be considered,
viz. the reason given by Kant for holding that self-consciousness must
be possible. In the first paragraph (Secs. 1-4) Kant appears twice to
state a reason, viz. in Secs. 1 and 4. What is meant by the first
sentence, "It must be possible that the 'I think' should accompany all
my representations; for otherwise something would be represented in me
which could not be thought; in other words, the representation would
either be impossible or at least for me nothing"? It is difficult to
hold that 'my representations' here means objects of which I am aware,
and that the thesis to be established is that I must be capable of
being conscious of my own identity throughout all awareness or thought
of objects. For the next sentence refers to perceptions as
representations which can be given previously to all thought, and
therefore, presumably, as something of which I am not necessarily
aware. Again, the ground adduced for the thesis would be in part a
mere restatement of it, and in part nonsense. It would be 'otherwise
something would be apprehended with respect to which I could not be
aware that I was apprehending it; in other words, I could not
apprehend it [since otherwise I could be aware that I was apprehending
it]', the last words being incapable of any interpretation. It is much
more probable that though Kant is leading up to self-consciousness,
the phrase 'I think' here refers not to 'consciousness that I am
thinking', but to 'thinking'. He seems to mean 'It must be possible to
apprehend all my 'affections' (i. e. sensations or appearances in me),
for otherwise I should have an affection of which I could not be
aware; in other words, there could be no such affection, or at least
it would be of no possible importance to me.'[74] And on this
interpretation self-consciousness is not introduced till Sec. 3, and
then only surreptitiously. On neither interpretation, however, does
Kant give the vestige of a _reason_ for the possibility of
self-consciousness. Again, it seems clear that in Sec. 4 'my
representations', and 'representations which belong to me' mean
objects of which I am aware (i. e. something presented); for he says
of my representations, not that I may not be conscious of them--which
he should have said if 'my representations' meant my mental affections
of which I could become conscious--but that I may not be conscious of
them as my representations. Consequently in Sec. 4 he is merely
asserting that I must be able to be conscious of my identity throughout
my awareness of objects. So far, then, we find merely the _assertion_
that self-consciousness must be possible.[75]
[74] A third alternative is to understand Kant to be thinking
of all thought as self-conscious, i. e. as thinking
accompanied by the consciousness of thinking. But since in
that case Kant would be arguing from thinking as _thinking_,
i. e. as apprehending objects, the possibility of
self-consciousness would only be glaringly assumed.
[75] The same is true of A. 116 and A. 117 note, Mah. 208,
where Kant also appears to be offering what he considers to
be an argument.
In the next paragraph[76]--which is clearly meant to be the important
one--Kant, though he can hardly be said to be aware of it, seems to
_assume_ that it is the very nature of a knowing self, not only to be
identical throughout its thoughts or apprehendings, but to be capable
of being conscious of its own identity. Sec. 6 runs: "The empirical
consciousness which accompanies different representations is in itself
fragmentary, and without relation to the identity of the subject."
Kant is saying that if there existed merely a consciousness of A which
was not at the same time a consciousness of B and a consciousness
of B which was not at the same time a consciousness of A, these
consciousnesses would not be the consciousnesses belonging to one
self. But this is only true, if the one self to which the
consciousness of A and the consciousness of B are to belong must be
capable of being aware of its own identity. Otherwise it might be one
self which apprehended A and then, forgetting A, apprehended B. No
doubt in that case the self could not be aware of its own identity in
apprehending A and in apprehending B, but none the less it would _be_
identical in so doing. We reach the same conclusion if we consider the
concluding sentence of Sec. 10. "It is only because I can comprehend the
manifold of representations in one consciousness, that I call them all
my representations; for otherwise I should have as many-coloured and
varied a self as I have representations of which I am conscious."
Doubtless if I am to _be aware of_ myself as the same in apprehending
A and B, then, in coming to apprehend B, I must continue to apprehend
A, and therefore must apprehend A and B as related; and such a
consciousness on Kant's view involves a synthesis. But if I am merely
to _be_ the same subject which apprehends A and B, or rather if the
apprehension of A and that of B are merely to _be_ apprehensions on
the part of one and the same subject, no such consciousness of A and B
as related and, therefore, no synthesis is involved.
[76] Secs. 5-11.
Again, the third paragraph assumes the possibility of
self-consciousness as the starting-point for argument. The thought[77]
seems to be this: 'For a self to be aware of its own identity, there
must be a manifold in relation to which it can apprehend itself as one
and the same throughout. An understanding which was perceptive, i. e.
which originated objects by its own act of thinking, would necessarily
by its own thinking originate a manifold in relation to which it could
be aware of its own identity in thinking, and therefore its
self-consciousness would need no synthesis. But our understanding,
which is not perceptive, requires a manifold to be given to it, in
relation to which it can be aware of its own identity by means of a
synthesis of the manifold.' If this be the thought, it is clearly
presupposed that _any_ understanding must be capable of being
conscious of its own identity.[78]
[77] Cf. B. 138 fin.-139 init., M. 85 fin.
[78] B. 139 init., M. 85 fin. also assumes that it is
impossible for a mind to be a unity without being able to be
conscious of its unity.
Further, it is easy to see how Kant came to take for granted the
possibility of self-consciousness, in the sense of the consciousness
of ourselves as the identical subject of all our representations. He
approaches self-consciousness with the presupposition derived from his
analysis of knowledge that our apprehension of a manifold does not
consist in separate apprehensions of its elements, but is one
apprehension or consciousness of the elements as related.[79] He
thinks of this as a general presupposition of all apprehension of a
manifold, and, of course, to discover this presupposition is to be
self-conscious. To recognize the oneness of our apprehension is to be
conscious of our own identity.[80]
[79] It is in consequence of this that the statement that 'a
manifold of representations belongs to me' means, with the
probable exception of Sec. 1, not, 'I am aware of A, I am
aware of B, I am aware of C,' but, 'I am aware, in one act of
awareness, of A B C as related' (= ABC are 'connected in' or
'belong to' one consciousness). Cf. Secs. 4, 8 ('in one
consciousness'), 9, 10 ('in one consciousness'), and A. 116,
Mah. 208 ('These representations only represent anything in
me by belonging with all the rest to one consciousness
[accepting Erdmann's emendation _mit allen anderen_], in
which at any rate they can be connected').
[80] The above criticism of Kant's thought has not implied
that it may not be true that a knowing mind is, as such,
capable of being aware of its own unity; the argument has
only been that Kant's proof is unsuccessful.
Again, to pass to the second main point to be considered,[81]
Kant has no justification for arguing from the possibility of
self-consciousness to that of the synthesis. This can be seen from the
mere form of his argument. Kant, as has been said, seems first to
establish the possibility of self-consciousness, and thence to
conclude that a synthesis must be possible. But if, as it is his point
to urge, consciousness of our identity only takes place through
consciousness of the synthesis, this method of argument must be
invalid. It would clearly be necessary to know that the synthesis is
possible, _before_ and _in order that_ we could know that
self-consciousness is possible. An objector has only to urge that the
manifold might be such that it could not be combined into a systematic
whole, in order to secure the admission that in that case
self-consciousness would not be possible.
[81] Cf. p. 198.
Nevertheless, the passage under consideration may be said to lay bare
an important presupposition of self-consciousness. It is true that
self-consciousness would be impossible, if we merely apprehended the
parts of the world in isolation. To be conscious that I who am
perceiving C perceived B and A, I must be conscious at once of A, B,
and C, in one act of consciousness or apprehension. To be conscious
separately of A and B and C is not to be conscious of A and B and C.
And, to be conscious of A and B and C in one act of consciousness, I
must apprehend A, B, and C as related, i. e. as forming parts of a
whole or system. Hence it is only because our consciousness of A, B,
and C is never the consciousness of a mere A, a mere B, and a mere C,
but is always the consciousness of A B C as elements in one world that
we can be conscious of our identity in apprehending A, B, and C. If
_per impossibile_ our apprehension be supposed to cease to be an
apprehension of a plurality of objects in relation, self-consciousness
must be supposed to cease also. At the same time, it is impossible to
argue from the consciousness of our identity in apprehending to the
consciousness of what is apprehended as a unity, and thence to the
existence of that unity. For, apart from the consideration that in
fact all thinking presupposes the relatedness or--what is the same
thing--the necessary relatedness of objects to one another, and that
therefore any assertion to the contrary is meaningless, the
consciousness of objects as a unity is a condition of the
consciousness of our identity, and therefore any doubt that can be
raised in regard to the former can be raised equally with regard to
the latter.
We may now pass to the concluding portion of the deduction. For the
purpose of considering it, we may sum up the results of the preceding
discussion by saying that Kant establishes the synthesis of the
manifold on certain principles by what are really two independent
lines of thought. The manifold may be regarded either as something
which, in order to enter into knowledge, must be given relation to an
object, or as something with respect to which self-consciousness must
be possible. Regarded in either way, the manifold, according to Kant,
involves a process of synthesis on certain principles, which makes it
a systematic unity. Now Kant introduces the categories by maintaining
that they are the principles of synthesis in question. "I assert that
the above mentioned _categories_ are nothing but the _conditions of
thinking in a possible experience_.... They are fundamental
conceptions by which we think objects in general for phenomena."[82]
A synthesis according to the categories is 'that wherein alone
apperception can prove _a priori_ its thorough-going and necessary
identity'.[83] In the first edition this identification is simply
asserted, but in the second Kant offers a proof.[84]
[82] A. 111, Mah. 204. Cf. A. 119, Mah. 210.
[83] A. 112, Mah. 204.
[84] Cf. p. 161.
Before, however, we consider the proof, it is necessary to refer
to a difficulty which seems to have escaped Kant altogether. The
preceding account of the synthesis involved in knowledge and in
self-consciousness implies, as his illustrations conclusively show,
that the synthesis requires a particular principle which constitutes
the individual manifold a whole of a particular kind.[85] But, if this
be the case, it is clear that the categories, which are merely
conceptions of an object in general, and are consequently quite
general, cannot possibly be sufficient for the purpose. And since the
manifold in itself includes no synthesis and therefore no principle of
synthesis, Kant fails to give any account of the source of the
particular principles of synthesis required for particular acts of
knowledge.[86] This difficulty--which admits of no solution--is
concealed from Kant in two ways. In the first place, when he describes
what really must be stated as the process by which parts or qualities
of an object become related to an object of a particular kind, he
thinks that he is describing a process by which representations become
related to an object in general.[87] Secondly, he thinks of the
understanding as the source of general principles of synthesis,
individual syntheses and the particular principles involved being
attributed to the imagination; and so, when he comes to consider the
part played in knowledge by the understanding, he is apt to ignore the
need of particular principles.[88] Hence, Kant's proof that the
categories are the principles of synthesis can at best be taken only
as a proof that the categories, though not sufficient for the
synthesis, are involved in it.
[85] Cf. p. 177, note 2, and p. 185.
[86] Cf. pp. 215-17.
[87] Cf. pp. 181-2.
[88] Cf. p. 217.
The proof runs thus:
"I could never satisfy myself with the definition which logicians
give of a judgement in general. It is, according to them, the
representation of a relation between two conceptions...."
"But if I examine more closely the relation of given
representations[89] in every judgement, and distinguish it, as
belonging to the understanding, from their relation according to the
laws of the reproductive imagination (which has only subjective
validity), I find that a judgement is nothing but the mode of bringing
given representations under the _objective_ unity of apperception.
This is what is intended by the term of relation 'is' in judgements,
which is meant to distinguish the objective unity of given
representations from the subjective. For this term indicates the
relation of these representations to the original apperception, and
also their _necessary unity_, even though the judgement itself is
empirical, and therefore contingent, e. g. 'Bodies are heavy.' By this
I do not mean that these representations _necessarily_ belong _to each
other_ in empirical perception, but that they belong to each other _by
means of the necessary unity_ of apperception in the synthesis of
perceptions, that is, according to principles of the objective
determination of all our representations, in so far as knowledge can
arise from them, these principles being all derived from the principle
of the transcendental unity of apperception. In this way alone can
there arise from this relation _a judgement_, that is, a relation
which is _objectively valid_, and is adequately distinguished from the
relation of the very same representations which would be only
subjectively valid, e. g. according to laws of association. According
to these laws, I could only say, 'If I carry a body, I feel an
impression of weight', but not 'It, the body, _is_ heavy'; for this is
tantamount to saying, 'These two representations are connected in the
object, that is, without distinction as to the condition of the
subject, and are not merely connected together in the perception,
however often it may be repeated.'"[90]
[89] _Erkenntnisse_ here is clearly used as a synonym for
representations. Cf. A. 104, Mah. 199.
[90] B. 140-2, M. 86-8; cf. _Prol._, Secs. 18-20.
This ground for the identification of the categories with the
principles of synthesis involved in knowledge may be ignored, as on
the face of it unsuccessful. For the argument is that since the
activity by which the synthesis is affected is that of judgement, the
conceptions shown by the _Metaphysical Deduction_ to be involved in
judgement must constitute the principles of synthesis. But it is
essential to this argument that the present account of judgement and
that which forms the basis of the _Metaphysical Deduction_ should be
the same; and this is plainly not the case.[91] Judgement is now
represented as an act by which we relate the manifold of sense in
certain necessary ways as parts of the physical world,[92] whereas in
the _Metaphysical_ _Deduction_ it was treated as an act by which we
relate conceptions; and Kant now actually says that this latter
account is faulty. Hence even if the metaphysical deduction had
successfully derived the categories from the account of judgement
which it presupposed, the present argument would not justify the
identification of the categories so deduced with the principles of
synthesis. The fact is that Kant's vindication of the categories is in
substance independent of the _Metaphysical Deduction_. Kant's real
thought, as opposed to his formal presentation of it, is simply that
when we come to consider what are the principles of synthesis involved
in the reference of the manifold to an object, we find that they are
the categories.[93] The success, then, of this step in Kant's
vindication of the categories is independent of that of the
metaphysical deduction, and depends solely upon the question whether
the principles of synthesis involved in knowledge are in fact the
categories.
[91] Cf. Caird, i. 348-9 note.
[92] We may notice in passing that this passage renders
explicit the extreme difficulty of Kant's view that 'the
objective unity of apperception' is the unity of the parts of
nature or of the physical world. How can the 'very same
representations' stand at once in the subjective relation of
association and in the objective relation which consists in
their being related as parts of nature? There is plainly
involved a transition from representation, in the sense of
the apprehension of something, to representation, in the
sense of something apprehended. It is objects apprehended
which are objectively related; it is our apprehensions of
objects which are associated, cf. pp. 233 and 281-2. Current
psychology seems to share Kant's mistake in its doctrine of
association of ideas, by treating the elements associated,
which are really apprehensions of objects, as if they were
objects apprehended.
[93] Cf. A. 112, Mah. 204; B. 162, M. 99.
The substance of Kant's vindication of the categories may therefore be
epitomized thus: 'We may take either of two starting-points. On the
one hand, we may start from the fact that our experience is no mere
dream, but an intelligent experience in which we are aware of a world
of individual objects. This fact is conceded even by those who, like
Hume, deny that we are aware of any necessity of relation between
these objects. We may then go on to ask how it comes about that,
beginning as we do with a manifold of sense given in succession, we
come to apprehend this world of individual objects. If we do so, we
find that there is presupposed a synthesis on our part of the manifold
upon principles constituted by the categories.
To deny, therefore, that the manifold is so connected is implicitly to
deny that we have an apprehension of objects at all. But the existence
of this apprehension is plainly a fact which even Hume did not
dispute. On the other hand, we may start with the equally obvious fact
that we must be capable of apprehending our own identity throughout
our apprehension of the manifold of sense, and look for the
presupposition of this fact. If we do this, we again find that there
is involved a combination of the manifold according to the
categories.'
In conclusion, attention may be drawn to two points. In the first
place, Kant completes his account by at once emphasizing and
explaining the paradoxical character of his conclusion. "Accordingly,
the order and conformity to law in the phenomena which we call
_nature_ we ourselves introduce, and we could never find it there,
if we, or the nature of our mind, had not originally placed it
there."[94] "However exaggerated or absurd then it may sound to say
that the understanding itself is the source of the laws of nature and
consequently of the formal unity of nature, such an assertion is
nevertheless correct and in accordance with the object, i. e. with
experience."[95] The explanation of the paradox is found in the fact
that objects of nature are phenomena. "But if we reflect that this
nature is in itself nothing else than a totality[96] of phenomena and
consequently no thing in itself but merely a number of representations
of the mind, we shall not be surprised that only in the radical
faculty of all our knowledge, viz. transcendental apperception, do we
see it in that unity through which alone it can be called object of
all possible experience, i. e. nature."[97] "It is no more surprising
that the laws of the phenomena in nature must agree with the
understanding and with its _a priori_ form, that is, its faculty of
connecting the manifold in general, than that the phenomena themselves
must agree with the _a priori_ form of our sensuous perception. For
laws exist in the phenomena as little as phenomena exist in
themselves; on the contrary, laws exist only relatively to the subject
in which the phenomena inhere, so far as it has understanding, just as
phenomena exist only relatively to the subject, so far as it has
senses. To things in themselves their conformity to law would
necessarily also belong independently of an understanding which knows
them. But phenomena are only representations of things which exist
unknown in respect of what they may be in themselves. But, as mere
representations, they stand under no law of connexion except that
which the connecting faculty prescribes."[98]
[94] A. 125, Mah. 214.
[95] A. 127, Mah. 216.
[96] _Inbegriff._
[97] A. 114, Mah. 206.
[98] B. 164, M. 100.
In the second place, this last paragraph contains the real reason from
the point of view of the deduction[99] of the categories for what may
be called the negative side of his doctrine, viz. that the categories
only apply to objects of experience and not to things in themselves.
According to Kant, we can only say that certain principles of
connexion apply to a reality into which we introduce the connexion.
Things in themselves, if connected, are connected in themselves and
apart from us. Hence there can be no guarantee that any principles of
connexion which we might assert them to possess are those which they
do possess.
[99] The main passage (B. 146-9, M. 90-2), in which he argues
that the categories do not apply to things in themselves,
ignores the account of a conception as a principle of
synthesis, upon which the deduction turns, and returns to the
earlier account of a conception as something opposed to a
perception, i. e. as that by which an object is thought as
opposed to a perception by which an object is given.
Consequently, it argues merely that the categories, as
conceptions, are empty or without an object, unless an object
is given in perception, and that, since things in themselves
are not objects of perception, the categories are no more
applicable to things in themselves than are any other
conceptions.