To the consideration of these we shall now proceed. Time Metaphysical exposition of the concept of time Time is not an empirical concept that has been derived from any experience. For neither coexistence nor succession would ever come within our perception, if the representation of time were not presupposed as underlying them a priori. Time is a necessary representation that underlies all intuitions. We cannot, in respect of appearances in general, remove time itself, though we can quite well think time as void of appearances.
Time is, therefore, given a priori.
In it alone is actuality of appearances possible at all. The possibility of apodeictic principles concerning the relations of time, or of axioms of time in general, is also grounded upon this a priori necessity. These principles connot be derived from experience, for experience would give neither strict universality nor apodeictic certainty. Time is not a discursive, or what is called a general concept, but a pure form of sensible intuition. Moreover, the proposition that different times cannot be simultaneous is not to be derived from a general concept.