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Synthetic / analytic

Analytic judgments merely unfold what is already contained in the concept; synthetic ones extend knowledge. Kant's guiding question: how are synthetic judgments a priori possible?

In an analytic judgment the predicate is already contained in the subject concept (“all bodies are extended”) — it merely unpacks what one already thinks. A synthetic judgment adds something new to the concept and so extends knowledge; usually it rests on experience.

The special case are judgments that are synthetic and a priori at once: they extend knowledge and yet hold necessarily and universally — like “7 + 5 = 12”, where twelve is not contained in the concepts of seven and five. Explaining how they are possible is the central task of the “Critique of Pure Reason”.

Source: Wikipedia: Synthetic / analytic