SUBSTANCE

[A80/B106] The first category of relation, discussed in detail in the First Analogy (the associated categories, discussed in the subsequent Analogies, are causality and community). [B149] In the Deduction in B, substance is defined as "something which can exist as subject and never as mere predicate". [A143/B183] In the Schematism, defines the schema of substance as "permanence of the real in time, that is, the representation of the real as a substrate of empirical time in general, and so abiding while all else changes". [A182/B224] In the First Analogy Kant argues that this schematized category must be employed in any possible experience, and thus that we must understand appearances as being representations of substance , and understand changes as changes in substance. (What is the relation to substance as what we represent appearances representing, and the "transcendental object =x" which appearances actually represent? Well, Kant only requires that we represent substance as existing, which is not to say that it exists, even according to his own standards of empirical reality (thus the Refutation is needed in addition to the Analogies to rebut skepticism of the external world). Secondly, in any case, Kant couldn't consistently claim to know anything about the "transcendental object =x", and thus couldn't consistently assert that it is substance.)

[A184/B227] In the First Analogy, Kant concludes: "All existence and all change in time thus have to be viewed as simply a mode of the existence of that which remains and persists. In all appearances the permanent is the object itself, that is, substance as phenomenon; everything, on the other hand, which changes or can change belongs only to the way in which substance or substances exist, and therefore to their determinations....The only difference in this matter between the common man and the philosopher is that the latter expresses himself somewhat more definitely, asserting that throughout all changes in the world remains substance remains, and that only the accidents change".