Thus, external reflection, inevitably, starts from immediate being, while positing reflection from nothing. External reflection posits the two sides, the self-equality of essence, and the differences of illusory being as show, as entirely distinct. Production is for consumption and consumption is for production. They are mutually interdependent. In either case, one must be the starting point for other, or each one mediates its other in their mutual dependence.
Production is explained through production, and consumption is explained through production.
For Kant after comparison of objects by reflection on them we find what they have common and than abstract from their properties. That is, reflection is determination of the appropriate universal from the given particular. Essence, in the former, is a reflection of thought's movement of abstracting from the immediately distinctive beings. On the other hand, given is always preceded by thought determinations. Contrary, the success of reflection depends on their mutuality.