ANALYTIC

a statement or an item of knowledge which is true solely because of its conformity to some logical laws. (Cf. synthetic.)

[L:117] In the Logic, Kant distinguishes analytic and synthetic propositions in terms of the basis of their "certainty", writing "analytic...one calls those propositions whose certainty rests on identity of concepts (of the predicate with the notion of the subject). [L:118] Propositions whose truth is not grounded on identity of concepts must be called synthetic". Where there is a strict identity the proposition is tautologous; the subjects and predicates of other analytic judgments are identical "implicitly"--presumably if the predicate is "contained in", "entailed by", "part of", etc. the subject. Kant writes, "the identity of concepts in analytic judgments can be either explicit of non-explicit. In the former case analytical propositions are tautological". [A6/B11] In the Critique Kant distinguishes analytic and synthetic judgments imilarly, writing: "Either the predicate B belongs to the subject A, as something which is (covertly) contained in this concept A; or B lies outside the concept A, although it does indeed stand in connection with it. In the one case I entitle the judgment analytic, in the other synthetic. Analytic judgments...are therefore those in which the connection of the predicate with the subject is thought through identity." Kant adds that analytic concepts are explicative (the predicate "adds nothing new") whereas synthetic concepts are ampliative.