Article ID: CBB001320551

The Wolffian Roots of Kant's Teleology (2013)

unapi

Kant's teleology as presented in the Critique of Judgment is commonly interpreted in relation to the late eighteenth-century biological research of Johann Friedrich Blumenbach. In the present paper, I show that this interpretative perspective is incomplete. Understanding Kant's views on teleology and biology requires a consideration of the teleological and biological views of Christian Wolff and his rationalist successors. By reconstructing the Wolffian roots of Kant's teleology, I identify several little known sources of Kant's views on biology. I argue that one of Kant's main contributions to eighteenth-century debates on biology consisted in demarcating biology from metaphysics. Kant rejected Wolffian views on the hierarchy of sciences, according to which propositions specifying the functions of organisms are derived from theological truths. In addition, Kant argued that organic self-organization necessitates a teleological description in order to show that self-organization does not support materialism. By demarcating biology and metaphysics, Kant made a small yet important contribution to establishing biology as a science.

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Authors & Contributors
Rumore, Paola
Goy, Ina
Casini, Paolo
Demarest, Boris
Klempe, Sven Hroar
Zammito, John H.
Concepts
Philosophy
Metaphysics
Teleology
Biology
Natural philosophy
Mechanism; mechanical philosophy
Time Periods
18th century
17th century
Early modern
Enlightenment
Ancient
19th century
Places
Germany
Europe
Greece
Institutions
Prussian Academy of Sciences
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