As Kant explained in the introduction, The Critique of Pure Reason is composed of two overarching components: the Transcendental Doctrine of Elements and the Transcendental Doctrine of Method. He begins with the “Doctrine of Elements,” which is also subdivided into two main parts: the Transcendental Aesthetic and the Transcendental Logic. His first order of business is the “Aesthetic,” a term that Kant uses to describe something more technical than the study of artistic judgments. The transcendental aesthetic is “a science of all principles of a priori sensibility” (73). Kant seeks to understand the limits of human cognition.

Cognition of objects takes two forms: sensibility and understanding. While understanding deals with objects as they are thought, sensibility deals with objects as they are given to the mind (put differently, appearances). Kant writes, “intuition is that by which a cognition refers to objects directly” (71). The intuitions of sensibility are designated empirical intuitions. Since the objects of thought are originally based upon the experience of objects given to the mind by sensibility, empirical intuition forms the basis of all possible cognition. Coming to grips with its nature is of the utmost importance for the outset of the critical project.