A Study Of Kant's Teleology In Critique Of Judgment

Kant,in the chapter ? namely "Architecture of Pure Reason" in"Transcendental Doctrine of Method" of the First Critique,points out that empirical knowledge is of purposiveness derived from the nature of reason,that is,the systematic unity of knowledge,thereby manifold knowledge achieves the systematic unity under the a priori determination according to an idea,thus the goal presented according to a rational purpose a priori is called "architectonic unity",and this is a completely a priori road of reason itself;Judgment,in contrast,can fully pursue the systematic unity of knowledge in terms of reflection empirically,as is called "the unity of technic" by Kant,which is not in accordance with an idea,but depicted referring to some intention of nature accidentally revealed and captured by us,therefore making the way toward the Third Critique.The First Introduction of the Third Critique takes over this "technical" thinking road,which reflective judgment is able to use as a natural means of reflection and deal with the special objects of nature,while the reflective judgment abides by the principle of purposiveness deriving from itself.Now the diverse natural objects obtain the purposive unity due to technical reflection of judgment and even the teleological principle is enough to be applied to the whole nature and take it as a "system of purposes".From the first rehearsal of judgment's function in the First Critique,to the full display of its own reflective power,judgment turns into the deep operation of cognitive faculties of human reason,thereby "critique of pure judgment" is named,or,reflective judgment comes into being.Understanding and reason both have their own territories,while judgment never share any territory,but only deepens into its own principle of natural purposiveness for "doctrinal enterprise",for it has complete spontaneity in this sense and is kind of heautonomy among or above all faculties of"autonomy" of subjects,whose intermediary character makes it as the agent of understanding and reason.The principle of natural purposiveness,which derives from judgment itself,enables us gain great joy in free play and harmony between imagination and understanding and regard nature as suitable for(purposive for)our cognition on one hand,thereby judgment strengthens subjects' autonomous ability in the free play between imagination and understanding,making it possible for the transition from the concept of nature to the concept of freedom;it's the same principle which further mediates understanding and reason in its logical application to organized beings,on the other hand.Besides,the philosophical normative implication of natural purposiveness is another topic,which is more than what we can tell,inspiring a set of general normative discourse except ethics:assertion or judgment from what something is to what something should be.Despite of teleology itself,normative problem is exactly what triggered the later philosophers and western contemporary scholars proceed with a heated discussion of the concept of natural purposiveness.Kant's commentary of organized beings makes up the core of the teleological arguments,where organized beings in the empirical nature is the only remaining thing after Kant's stripping and ruling out objective formal purposiveness and objective material but external purposiveness,and teleology is finally based on organized beings due to their self-organizing peculiarity,therefore the concept of natural purpose is the most concentrated expression of Kant's teleological arguments;thereby the resulting teleological principle entitles us to bring the external purposes excluded into the whole nature as a purpose.However,the dual meaning inherently in the concept of natural purpose makes itself in danger of being fragmented,so Kant had to take intuitive understanding as a contrast and appealed to the peculiarity of human's discursive understanding,and finally made use of the antinomy of mechanism and teleology in order to eliminate ambiguity in the concept of natural purpose,emphasizing the characteristics of human's conditioned reason——the root of Kant's critical philosophy.With regard to the supersensible thing(or thing in itself)from the perspective of empirical cognitive objects in nature and the concept of freedom as the guarantee of the moral practical ability,the ground of their harmonious unity consists in judgment,now that merely subjective purposiveness creates the conditions of possibility for the unity,natural teleology with respect to objective purposiveness makes the supersensible substrate behind nature to be the object of human's rational thinking,and the natural purpose given in the realistic experience triggered the operation of judgment between understanding and reason,only in this sense can we remark transition and mediation between theoretical philosophy and practical philosophy on a good ground.Then,the remark on supersensible being in term of teleology will unify the supersensible thing and the concept of practical freedom in the first two Critiques perfectly.Heidegger even interpreted Kant's teleology as the inherent requirement of systematic philosophy,"the system doesn't derive from experience,but erect for experience on the contrary," this is considered as Heidegger's endorsement of Kant's endeavor of unifying the first two Critiques by the concept of purpose.