y to objects apart from our perception, or, at least,
there is no ground for holding that it does so.

[41] _Prol._, Sec. 9.

[42] _Prol._, Sec. 11.

[43] _Prol._, Sec. 10.

If, however, this fairly represents Kant's thought, it must be allowed
that the conclusion which he should have drawn is different, and even
that the conclusion which he does draw is in reality incompatible with
his starting-point.

His starting-point is the view that the truth of geometrical
judgements presupposes a perception of empty space, in virtue of which
we can discover rules of spatial relation which must apply to all
spatial objects subsequently perceived. His problem is to discover the
presupposition of this presupposition. The proper answer must be, not
that space is a form of sensibility or a way in which objects appear
to us, but that space is the form of all objects, i. e. that all
objects are spatial.[44] For in that case they must be subject to the
laws of space, and therefore if we can discover these laws by a study
of empty space, the only condition to be satisfied, if the objects of
subsequent perception are to conform to the laws which we discover, is
that all objects should be spatial. Nothing is implied which enables
us to decide whether the objects are objects as they are in themselves
or objects as perceived; for in either case the required result
follows. If in empirical perception we apprehend things only as they
appear to us, and if space is the form of them as they appear to us,
it will no doubt be true that the laws of spatial relation which we
discover must apply to things as they appear to us. But on the other
hand, if in empirical perception we apprehend things as they are, and
if space is their form, i. e. if things are spatial, it will be
equally true that the laws discovered by geometry must apply to things
as they are.

[44] Kant expresses the assertion that space is the form of
all objects by saying that space is the form of _phenomena_.
This of course renders easy an unconscious transition from
the thesis that space is the form of objects to the quite
different thesis that space is the form of sensibility; cf.
p. 39.

Again, Kant's starting-point really commits him to the view that space
is a characteristic of things as they are. For--paradoxical though it
may be--his problem is to explain the possibility of _perceiving a
priori_, i. e. of _perceiving_ the character