 Thus Kant’s Theory of Experience is above all an attempt to articulate and defend Cohen’s alternative interpretation of Kant’s a priori. On that interpretation, Kant’s aim in the Critique of Pure Reason is to show how a priori laws of human thought explain the character of our experience of objects. For Cohen, because these a priori laws are necessary, they are objective. So Kant’s explanation of objective experience appeals to them, and not to the effects of any alleged mind-independent objects.