ANALITICA. — A term derived from analysis. In Aristotle, Analytics (First and Second) is the name given to the two books of logic dealing with the syllogism and demonstration. In Kant, analytic is the science of the forms of knowledge; and transcendental analytic, according to the meaning given by Kant to the term “transcendental,” is that part of logic which analyses the faculty of knowledge in order to discover within it the a priori elements and forms of the pure knowledge of the intellect (concepts and principles), without which it is impossible to think of any object.
As a noun that has entered common philosophical language, not to mention its extensive use in mathematics and geometry, analytic may be said to express the strong sense of analysis, almost as an abbreviation for analytic science or research: that is, the methodical and resolutive study of a phenomenon, a problem, a doctrine, etc., in its causes, elements, and principles. It is in this sense that we may speak, for example, of the analytic of thought, the analytic of experience, the analytic of Thomism.