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 com