Counted as one to the transcendental acts of the mind. The Synthesis of Recognition in a Concept. Without reproduction, recognition in a concept cannot arise. Since we deal only with representations and since objects are distinct from our representations, the object makes necessary the formal unity of consciousness in the synthesis of the manifold of representations. Only when we have produced this synthesis can we say we know an object.
All knowledge demands a concept and a concept is always universal and serves as a rule.
All necessity is grounded in a transcendental condition, which, therefore, must be the ground of the concepts in general. This ground is the transcendental apprehension . It is the pure original unchangeable consciousness which precedes all data of intuitions and makes them possible. It must precede intuitions because consciousness of self is empirical and thus we could never reach it without the transcendental apprehension. Consciousness of self is at the same time the synthesis of appearances according to concepts.