The Teleological Consideration of Organisms in Kant’s Critique of the Power of Judgment
Main Article Content
Abstract
According to Breitenbach, the importance that Kant attaches to teleology in the study of organic nature is not only compatible with contemporary epistemological positions, but also represents progress within the framework of the ongoing debate on the topic. This is because Kant proposes a general teleological conception of nature according to which considering something as organic already means considering it teleologically. Although I agree that the analysis that Kant proposes is relevant to the contemporary discussion about the issue, I try to show that, from his point of view, the identification and experience of the organic as such does not suppose a teleological perspective, but the latter occurs when we want to account for certain characteristics of organisms that, otherwise, would be hardly intelligible.
Downloads
Article Details
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
The author is required to sign a letter for the transferal of rights, and to authorize the distribution of his or her article through any format.
The reproduction of articles —but not of images—is permitted, provided the source is cited and the authors’ rights respected.
Creative Commons Atribución-NoComercial-SinDerivar 4.0 Internacional.
References
Breitenbach, Angela, 2009, “Teleology in Biology: A Kantian Perspective”, en Dietmar Heidemann (comp.), Kant Yearbook 1/2009. Teleology, Walter de Gruyter, Berlín/Nueva York, pp. 31–56. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110196672.31
Breitenbach, Angela, 2006, “Mechanical Explanation of Nature and its Limits in Kant’s Critique of Judgment”, Studies in History and Philosophy of Biological and Biomedical Sciences, vol. 37, no. 4, pp. 694–711. <http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.shpsc.2006.09.001> DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.shpsc.2006.09.001
Düssing, Klaus, 1968, Die Teleologie in Kants Weltbegriff, Bouvier, Bonn.
Förster, Eckhart, 2008, “Von der Eigentümlichkeit unseres Verstands in Ansehung der Urteilskraft (§§ 74–78)”, en Otfried Höffe (comp.), Immanuel Kant. Kritik der reinen Vernunft, Akademie, Berlín, pp. 269–271. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1524/9783050050157.259
Gambarotto, Andrea y Auguste Nahas, 2022, “Teleology and the Organism: On Kant’s Controversial Legacy for Contemporary Biology”, Studies in History and Philosophy of Science, vol. 93, pp. 47–56. <https://doi.org/10.1016/j.shpsa.2022.02.005> DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.shpsa.2022.02.005
Ginsborg, Hannah, 2006, “Kant’s Biological Teleology and its Philosophical Significance”, en Graham Bird, A Companion to Kant, Wiley-Blackwell Publishing, Oxford, pp. 455–469. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/b.9781405111973.2006.00035.x
Goy, Ina, 2015, “The Antinomy of Teleological Judgment”, Studi Kantiani, vol. 28, pp. 65–87.
Jáuregui, Claudia, 2021, “The Resolution of the Antinomy of the Teleological Judgment: Can We Assert that the Intelligent World-Cause Has an Intuitive Understanding?”, International Philosophical Quarterly, vol. 61, no. 2, pp. 161–174. DOI: https://doi.org/10.5840/ipq2021429173
Jáuregui, Claudia, 2020, “Kant y el carácter regulativo del principio mecanicista en la antinomia de la facultad de juzgar teleológica”, Con-textos Kantianos, no. 11, pp. 92–109.
Kant, Immanuel, 1956, Kritik der reinen Vernunft, Felix Meiner, Hamburgo.
Kant, Immanuel, 1902a y ss., Kritik der Urteilskraft, en Kants gesammelte Schriften. Herausgegeben von der Akademie der Wissenschaften von der Deutschen/Göttingen Akademie der Wissenschaften, Berlín, vol. 5.
Kant, Immanuel, 1902b y ss., Metaphysische Anfangsgründe der Naturwissenschaft, en Kants gesammelte Schriften. Herausgegeben von der Akademie der Wissenschaften von der Deutschen/Göttingen Akademie der Wissenschaften, Berlín, vol. 4.
Kauffman, Stuart, 2000, Investigations, Oxford University Press, Nueva York. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780195121049.001.0001
Maturana, Humberto y Francisco Varela, 1980, Autopoiesis and Cognition: the Realization of the Living, Reidel, Dordrecht. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-009-8947-4
Mayr, Ernst, 1974, “Teleological and Teleonomic. A New Analysis”, en Robert S. Cohen y Marx W. Wartofsky (comps.), Methodological and Historical Essays in Natural and Social Sciences, Boston Studies in the Philosophy of Science, Boston. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-010-2128-9_6
McLaughlin, Peter, 1990, Kant’s Critique of Teleology in Biological Explanation. Antinomy and Teleology, The Edwin Mellen Press, Lewiston/Queenston/Lampeter.
Montévil, Maël y Matteo Mossio, 2015, “Biological Organisation as Closure of Constraints”, Journal of Theoretical Biology, vol. 372, pp. 179–191. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jtbi.2015.02.029
Moreno, Álvaro y Matteo Mossio, 2015, Biological Autonomy: A Philosophical and Theoretical Enquiry, History, Philosophy and Theory of the Life Sciences, vol. 12, Springer, Dordrecht. <http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-9837-2> DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-9837-2
Mossio, Matteo y Leonardo Bich, 2017, “What Makes Biological Organization Teleological?”, Synthese, vol. 194, pp. 1089–1114. <http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11229-014-0594-z> DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11229-014-0594-z
Palermo, Sandra, 2018, “Más allá de los límites del pensar discursivo. Notas sobre la figura del entendimiento intuitivo en la Crítica de la facultad de juzgar”, Verifiche. Rivista di Scienze Umane, vol. XLVII, no. 1–2, pp. 5–37.
Quarfood, Marcel, 2014, “The Antinomy of the Teleological Judgment: What it is and How it is Solved”, en Ina Goy y Eric Watkins (comps.), Kant’s Theory of Biology, De Gruyter, Berlín/Boston, pp. 167–184. <https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110225792.167> DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110225792.167
Roth, Siegfried, 2014, “Kant, Polanyi, and Molecular Biology”, en Ina Goy y Eric Watkins (comps.), Kant’s Theory of Biology, De Gruyter, Berlín/Boston, pp. 275–292. <https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110225792.275> DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110225792.275
Watkins, Eric, 2009, “The Antinomy of Teleological Judgment”, Kant Yearbook, vol. 1, no. 2009, pp. 197–221. <https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110196672.197> DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110196672.197
Weber, Andreas y Francisco Varela, 2002, “Life after Kant: Natural Purposes and the Autopoietic Foundations of Biological Individuality”, Phenomenology and the Cognitive Sciences, vol. 1, no. 2, pp. 97–125. <http://dx.doi.org/10.1023/A:1020368120174> DOI: https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1020368120174
Zanetti, Véronique, 1993, “Die Antinomie der teleologischen Urteilskraft”, Kant-Studien, vol. 84, no. 3, pp. 341–355. <https://doi.org/10.1515/kant.1993.84.3.341> DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/kant.1993.84.3.341
Zuckert, Rachel, 2007, Kant on Beauty and Biology. An Interpretation of the Critique of Judgment, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge. <https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511487323> DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511487323