''Kant's methodological innovation was to employ what he calls a transcendental argument to prove synthetic a priori claims.

A transcendental argument is, in philosophy, a form of argument that is supposed to proceed from a fact to the necessary conditions of its possibility. A transcendental argument is simply a form of deduction, with the typical pattern: q is true only if p is true; q is true; therefore, p is true.

Synthetic judgments that can be known apriori (i.e., prior to any particular experience) are not specific or particular; they are very general universal claims''.