CATEGORY

[A79/B105] Kant defines categories as "pure concepts of the understanding which apply a priori to objects of intuition in general". [B128] Kant characterizes categories as "concepts of an object in general, by means of which the intuition of an object is regarded as determined in respect of one of the logical function of judgment." (The table of categories parallels the table of judgments; the latter lists "logical functions in all possible judgments". In the Deduction Kant maintains that the categories are the basis of all experience in the sense that all thought about objects (in B: all judgment generally) must employ the categories (which is to say the concepts have objective validity). [A119] In the Deduction in A, Kant concludes that "pure understanding, by means of the categories, is a formal and synthetic principle of all experience". [B143] In the Deduction in B, the parallel conclusion is "all sensible intuitions are subject to the categories, as conditions under which alone their manifold can come together in one consciousness". [A80/B106] In the table of categories, Kant divides the categories into four groupings, quantity, quality, relation, and modality.