Critique of Pure Reason

Next, Kant engages the second half of the doctrine of the elements: the transcendental logic. According to Kant, all cognition arises from intuition or concepts. Intuitions are given in sensibility and concepts are given in the understanding. Kant writes, “Only from their union can cognition arise” (107). Both intuitions and concepts can be either pure or empirical. They are empirical if they involve sensations, and they are pure if not.

Kant is now concerned with pure understanding. Logic is “the science of the rules of the understanding” (107). A pure, general logic completely abstracts from the content of thought and deals only with the form of that thought. These are the a priori laws governing the use of the understanding. Kant’s transcendental approach to logic deals with the origins of these laws. Agreement with the formal laws of logic is not enough to guarantee truth, but it is a necessary condition.

Kant makes an important distinction between analytic and dialectical logic. The analytical use of logic examines its elementary components. The dialectical use of logic leads to illusions by making illegitimate claims about objects without access to the proper information.