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SYNTHETIC A PRIORI LAW 199

they inform the semantic contentthe senseconstituted in the judging

experience. See also JUDGE; MEAN ING-CATEGO RIES; PURELOGICAL GRAMMAR.

SYNTHESIS. Synthesis is the joining together of what is not unified by its

own nature oressence. Husserl uses the notion of synthesis in different

contexts. In perception(Wahrnehmung) , for example, there is the

synthetic identification of a singularobject of perception. In the

experience of anothersubject, there is an apperceptive pairing in which

the subject recognizes the other subject precisely as another subject (rather

than an object). In a generalizing abstraction, there is the synthesis of likewith like that underlies the apprehension of the individual, idealspecies.

The structure of living present with its intentional directedness in

retention and protention to other phases of its own life is such that

consciousness as a who le is essentially characterized as synthesis.

Syntheses can be active or p assive. See also ACTIVE SYNTHESIS;

APPERCEPTION; GENERALIZATION; PASSIVE GENESIS; PAS-

SIVE SYNTHESIS.

SYNTHESIS OF IDENTIFICATION.See IDENTIFICATION; SYNTHE-

SIS.

SYNTHETIC A PRIORI LAW. Synthetic laws and propositions are defined

in contrast with analytic laws and propositions. The contrast is grounded

in the fundamental distinction between purely formal categories and

material regions. Whereas analytic a priori laws are founded purely on

formal categories and are unaffected by all material concepts, synthetic a

priori laws are founded on material concepts and the specific nature of theunified moments.

The terms color and extension, for example, do not include a

reference to one another as part of theirmeaning. Nevertheless, by virtue

of its essence color is necessarily and universally, that is, lawfully, related

to extension. The necessity of the principle A color cannot exist without

some space that it covers is evident. Given that color does not as part

of its meaning include a reference to something else, the necessity of the

principle A color cannot exist without some space that it covers must be

synthetic. So, while color, in virtue of its very content, is unthinkable andimpossible without an association with a nother content, specifically a

space that it covers, the notion of color does not analytically entail that

of space. The principle A color cannot exist without some space that it

covers is, therefore, a synthetic ormaterial a priori truth . Any law that

articulates a foundingrelationship and includes material concepts whose