 Having distinguished the factual and the normative by reference to different cognitive operations, Windelband also seeks to identify the points of contact between the two realms. Ultimately, he wants to explain how empirical beings can recognize absolute values. His idea that there is a system of absolute values is thus accompanied by the conception of a “normal consciousness”. In normal consciousness the absolute system of values is, at least partially, represented in the form of norms that are known by “empirical consciousness” and that have an effect on it.