Kant and Teleology

Kant's mature teleological philosophy in the Critique of the Power of Judgment is predicated on innovations that address a set of unprecedented challenges arising from within critical philosophy. The challenges are (1) a threat of "transcendental chaos" between sensibility and understanding, emerging from the structure of critical epistemology; (2) a threat of "critical chaos" between determination and reflection, generated by Kant's response to that first threat. The innovations include (a) a transcendental conception of purposiveness, (b) a principle of nature's purposiveness based on that conception, (c) a power of judgment governed by that principle, (d) and so governed in an unusual (self-given and self-governing) way, (e) a view on which nature does make leaps. This Element argues that Kant's mature teleological philosophy - and a fortiori Kant's aesthetics and philosophy of biology - cannot be understood without a fully systematic account of these challenges and innovations, and it presents such an account.

Author: Thomas Teufel
Binding Type: Hardcover
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Published: 05/08/2025
Series: Elements in the Philosophy of Immanuel Kant
Pages: 82
Weight: 0.63lbs
Size: 9.00h x 6.00w x 0.25d
ISBN: 9781009662383