e be accepted, then the
subjective character attributed by Kant in virtue of this relation to
what is object of thought, and equally attributable to what is object
of perception, reduces the problem to that of the conformity in
general of all ideas, including perceptions, within the mind to things
outside it; and this problem does not relate specially to _a priori_
judgements. To discover the problem which relates specially to them,
the other alternative must be accepted, that of ignoring relation to
the subject in both cases. The problem then becomes 'What renders
possible or is presupposed by the conformity of individual things to
certain laws of connexion?' And, inasmuch as to deny the conformity is
really to deny that there are laws of connexion,[14] the problem
reduces itself to the question, 'What is the presupposition of the
existence of definite laws of connexion in the world?' And the only
answer possible is that reality is a system or a whole of connected
parts, in other words, that nature is uniform. Thus it turns out that
the problem relates to the uniformity of nature, and that the
question 'How are _a priori_ synthetic judgements possible?' has in
reality nothing to do with the problem of the relation of reality to
the knowing subject, but is concerned solely with the nature of
reality.

[14] To object that the laws in question, being laws which we
have thought, may not be the true laws, and that therefore
there may still be other laws to which reality conforms, is
of course to reintroduce relation to the thinking subject.

Further, it is important to see that the alternative of ignoring
relation to the subject is the right one, not only from the point of
view of the problem peculiar to _a priori_ judgements, but also from
the point of view of the nature of knowledge in general. Perceiving
and thinking alike presuppose that reality is immediately object of
the mind, and that the act of apprehension in no way affects or enters
into the nature of what we apprehend about reality. If, for instance,
I assert on the strength of perception that this table is round, I
imply that I see the table, and that the shape which I judge it to
have is not affected by the fact that I am perceiving it; for I mean
that the table really is round. If some one then convinces me that I
have made a mistake owing to an effect of foreshortening, and that the
table is really oval, I amend my assertion, not by saying