Kant

Immanuel Kant’s “Prolegomena to any Future Metaphysics” makes the distinction between judgments of perception versus judgments of experiences. The distinction in judgments later supports Kant’s argument that alongside the a priori forms of sensibility (space and time) we uncover a priori concepts of the understanding. Sections 18, 19 serve as a necessary prelude to Kant’s overall distinctive conclusion in Section 20.

Sections 18, establishes judgments of perception for Kant. He explains that judgments of perception are judgments of experience that are subjectively valid. Once subjectively valid, then it is a judgment of perception, needing no concept of pure understanding, only logical connections of perception. At first all our judgments are judgments of perception. They are only good for the individual subject. Once we distinguish an object as a new reference and hold it the same for one individual and for everyone else were then creating a universal validity; a judgment of experience.

Furthermore, when judgment agrees with an object, and all judgments of the same subject agree amongst themselves it signifies a necessary universality of application. First comes a judgment of perception, once a judgment agrees with an object the judgment is considered necessarily universal; it also expresses a quality of the object. An example of a judgment of perception is in Section 19, an individual feeling “a room is warm” that is only a subjectively valid judgment. Judgment of experience teaches the one individual and everybody else and it always will. It is not limited to a particular present state of perception, such as one person feeling the warmth of the room, in a particular space and time.

Therefore, judgments of experience are obje...

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...ption is a part of some comprehensive concept of understanding.

The distinctions between judgments of perception and judgments of experience help Kant argue that alongside the a priori forms of sensibility (space and time) we uncover a priori concepts of the understanding. In section 18, Kant explains that particular concepts must be superadded-concepts that have an a priori origin in pure understanding. Every perception must be placed within something more comprehensive, and then it can be changed into experience. Section 20, expands that the connection of an empirical consciousness in a general consciousness that produces universal validity for empirical judgments maintains a concept that is a pure a priori concept of understanding. The concept of a cause is a pure concept of understanding that can then lead to further concepts of understanding such as causality.