The case is very different with those principles whose province it is
to subject the existence of phenomena to rules à priori. For as
existence does not admit of being constructed, it is clear that they
must only concern the relations of existence and be merely regulative
principles. In this case, therefore, neither axioms nor anticipations
are to be thought of. Thus, if a perception is given us, in a certain
relation of time to other (although undetermined) perceptions, we
cannot then say à priori, what and how great (in quantity) the other
perception necessarily connected with the former is, but only how it is
connected, quoad its existence, in this given modus of time. Analogies
in philosophy mean something very different from that which they
represent in mathematics. In the latter they are formulae, which
enounce the equality of two relations of quantity, and are always
constitutive, so that if two terms of the proportion are given, the
third is also given, that is, can be constructed by the aid of these
formulae. But in philosophy, analogy is not the equality of two
quantitative but of two qualitative relations. In this case, from three
given terms, I can give à priori and cognize the relation to a fourth
member, but not this fourth term itself, although I certainly possess a
rule to guide me in the search for this fourth term in experience, and
a mark to assist me in discovering it. An analogy of experience is
therefore only a rule according to which unity of experience must arise
out of perceptions in respect to objects (phenomena) not as a
constitutive, but merely as a regulative principle. The same holds good
also of the postulates of empirical thought in general, which relate to
the synthesis of mere intuition (which concerns the form of phenomena),
the synthesis of perception (which concerns the matter of phenomena),
and the synthesis of experience (which concerns the relation of these
perceptions). For they are only regulative principles, and clearly
distinguishable from the mathematical, which are constitutive, not
indeed in regard to the certainty which both possess à priori, but in
the mode of evidence thereof, consequently also in the manner of
demonstration.