On Categories

Abstract

Forms of thought, if we may speak of them at all, could have only one function: to impart form to a material already at hand, given through intuition but in a sense still formless, and thereby to produce in the material the relations that make knowledge of it possible. This, as we have said, was the view held by Kant himself. He called the material the “manifold of intuition”, and according to him the relations were instituted by the understanding which brought about a “synthetic unity” in the manifold, that is, drew the manifold together into the unity of consciousness. On occasion, he thought of “imagination” as being interposed between intuition and understanding. Imagination was supposed to create the synthesis of the manifold, but not to yield any knowledge. Knowledge first came about through the understanding, which gave unity to the synthesis by means of the pure concepts of the understanding.