Kant Lexicon

Judgment (Urtheil)

The fundamental act of the understanding, to which all other acts of that faculty can be reduced (A69/B94) . A judgment is a higher representation, which brings toghhter concepts and intuitions or concepts and concepts.

Judgments may be a priori or empirical, and they may be analytic or synthetic. Empirical judgments have their origin in experience, while a priori judgments have some other origin. Analytic judgments are such that the predicate is contained in the subject, while in synthetic judgments the content of the predicate goes beyond that of the subject. To show how synthetic judgments a priori are possible was the primary aim of the Critique.

Kant enunciated twelve forms of judgment, and his table of judgments is the basis for the table of categories. The logic with which Kant was working was traditional Aristotelian logic, which he modified to suit his purposes.

Quantity

Universal: All A is B

Particular: Some A is B

Singular: a is B

Quality

Affirmative: A is B

Negative: A is not B

Infinite: A is a non-B

Relation:

Categorical: A is B

(Example: Bodies are divisible.)

Hypothetical: If A is B then C is D (similarly for 'is not' and 'is a non-)

(Example: If there is a perfect justice, the obstinately wicked are punished.)

Disjunctive: a is A or B or C

(Example: The world exists either through blind chance, or thorugh inner necessity, or through an external cause.)

Modality

Problematic: A may be B

Assertoric: A (really) is B

Apodeictic: A must be B

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