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[ Regel ] see also concept , idea , imperative , judgement , law , reason , understanding , unity A rule is defined in P as a judgement ‘considered merely as the condition of the unification of given representations in a consciousness’ (§22), and features as both condition of unity and as procedure for unification. The rule which unifies given representations is given by the understanding to appearances in the ‘order and regularity in the appearances … which we ourselves introduce’ (CPR A 125) and yet is also discovered by it through the process of cognition. The understanding is characterized by Kant as ‘the faculty of rules ’ (A 126). It not only applies rules in unifying the manifold in intuition, but is also ‘itself the source of principles according to which everything that can be presented to us as an object must conform to rules’ (A 158/B 197). In the first case the understanding is following a procedural rule for unifying the manifold, in the second it is providing the conditions for unification. The role of the understanding as the ‘faculty which secures the unity of appearances by means of rules’ is complemented by that of reason which ‘secures the unity of the rules of understanding under principles’ (A 302/B 359). Yet in each case the rule of unification functions differently: for the understanding the rule is constitutive, establishing the conditions of both ... log in or subscribe to read full text