viii CONCEPTUAL RECONSTRUCTION 131 



add 4 and 3, a new whole is formed, but 4 and 3 remain 

 within it. In other cases the elements are modified by 

 the union. The formation of the synthesis is in fact the 

 modification of one by the other. So if I picture a colour 

 as one that originally matched a given colour, but is faded, or 

 think of a figure as similar to a given figure but on a larger 

 scale, the resulting concept may be spoken of as a synthesis 

 of elements, but only if we understand that here the process 

 is not in the nature of a juxtaposition, but of a modifica- 

 tion or transformation. With these understandings we 

 may speak of the work of thought on its concept-materials 

 as consisting in a synthesis and analysis, and may treat rules 

 and principles of the transformation of concepts as them- 

 selves concepts applied to other concepts in the process and 

 with the result of transforming them. 



Now what are the conditions under which the transfor- 

 mations effected by synthesis and analysis are valid ? Let 

 us first be clear as to the meaning of the question. If I 

 combine elements to form a whole, that whole exists for 

 me, and any qualities or relations that I find in it exist 

 for me. They are before my mind. They are as such 

 parts of my present experience. But so considered they 

 are taken apart from the reference which is a part of the 

 concept in its full significance. The question whether the 

 new whole has validity is the question whether the refer- 

 ence to reality contained in the concept is justified, whether 

 if we make the reference explicit in a judgment affirming 

 the whole to be real that judgment is true. Now the judg- 

 ment might be false because the original premisses were 

 false. But this case is not for the moment in question. 

 We are enquiring only into the validity of a certain process 

 and we may put the question in this way. Supposing 

 realities corresponding to two or more concepts, would 

 they together form a whole corresponding accurately 

 to the whole which my thought forms when it puts 

 the two concepts together? The affirmative answer 

 depends on two conditions, (i) The character of the 

 whole must depend on the elements that form it and on 

 nothing else. But this dependence is by no means simple 

 and unambiguous. A triangle is a synthesis of three 



