[30] B. 139-42, M. 87-8. Cf. 209, note 3, and pp. 281-2.
[31] It is for this reason that the mathematical illustrations of the synthesis are the most plausible for his theory. While we can be said to construct geometrical figures, and while the construction of geometrical figures can easily be mistaken for the apprehension of them, we cannot with any plausibility be said to construct the physical world.
[32] A. 125, Mah. 214. Cf. the other passages quoted pp. 211-12.
[33] Cf. Ch. VI.
[34] A. 109, Mah. 202.
[35] B. 130, M. 80.
[36] To say that 'combining', in the sense of making, really presupposes consciousness of the nature of the whole produced, would be inconsistent with the previous assertion that even where the reality known is something made, the knowledge of it presupposes that the reality is already made. Strictly speaking, the activity of combining presupposes consciousness not of the whole which we succeed in producing, but of the whole which we want to produce.
It may be noted that, from the point of view of the above argument, the activity of combining presupposes actual consciousness of the act of combination and of its principle, and does not imply merely the possibility of it. Kant, of course, does not hold this.
[37] B. 152, M. 93; cf. also Mah. 211, A. 120.
[38] Cf. A. 102-3, Mah. 197-8. The fact is that the appeal to reproduction is a useless device intended by Kant—and by 'empirical psychologists'—to get round the difficulty of allowing that in the apprehension (in memory or otherwise) of a reality not present to perception, we are really aware of the reality. The difficulty is in reality due to a sensationalistic standpoint, avowed or unavowed, and the device is useless, because the assumption has in the end to be made, covertly or otherwise, that we are really aware of the reality in question.