The Freeman’s Hope

"What may I hope”, as Kant’s third question, is theoretical and practical. It has a special significance because it’s related to the reality of the legislation of freedom.However, how can reasonable hope be realized?The key issue is just the weakness of Kantian philosophy. In Critique of Judgment, on the basis of concept of purpose, Kant constructs the methodology of teleology according to the principle of purposiveness,which is trying to answer this question.Kant finds that a person has three capacities called cognition, pleasant and unpleasant emotions(about judgment) and desire. Judgment can be divided into constitutive judgment and reflective judgment. Reflective judgment fits the principle of purposiveness as a priori principle. Purposiveness has two representations:aesthetic representation and logical representation, corresponding to aesthetic judgment(subjective form of purposiveness) and teleological judgment(objective material of purposiveness). The latter is the essential transition from the phenomenon to the transcendent noumenon. Teleological judgment still belongs to reflective judgment, which is regulative. It bases on the principle of purposiveness, from moral teleology to natural teleology, which connects the legislation of understanding and the legislation of reason.From the perspective of principle of teleological judgment, the organism is a natural end existing for people. Man is the ultimate end of nature, because he can, as an earthly being, form a concept of purpose and aggregate all purposive things into a teleological system. Earthly happiness is the subjective final end that must be achieved on a natural condition. The concept of happiness is in uncertainty, coupled with the obstacles of external nature and internal nature, thus the reality of earthly happiness becomes contingent so that it is not qualified to be the ultimate end of nature. Culture indicates that something is adaptable to all ends, which makes man take the other natural ends as means. As a product of freedom, culture is the real ultimate end of nature. Skill, as a form of culture, is the most important way to helppeople achieve their goals, but it can be just developed in the unequal society. Nature,in the use of unsocial society, develops history via the driving force of evil. The use of reason gives birth to the law. Human capricious freedom is limited by the law, which forms the political community and civil society, guiding to the pursuit of political supreme good——perpetual peace. That is, nature creates harmony from conflicts and maximizes the development of the endowment of people through the hidden plan.Historical philosophy and political philosophy mean the extent of external freedom of people. Perpetual peace can be regarded as earthly hope guiding to heavenly hope.Discipline as the second form of culture liberates will from desire and makes man elegant, preventing him from animality, in order to meet the higher purpose. Since then, natural teleology comes to moral teleology.The final end is the moral man who can exist without any natural things as conditions. He belongs to the phenomenon with the power of transcending the perceptual world. The moral man makes their own moral legislation be implemented,and thereby influence the perceptual world. The intermediary role of culture means an important condition for the formation of moral consciousness. All hoping is directed towards happiness. Virtue is the prerequisite condition of happiness. The supreme good means that virtue(freedom) is proportional to its happiness(nature). However,human can’t achieve the supreme good without the existence of God and the immortality of the soul. Hence, moral teleology comes to moral theology. Philosophy of religion means human internal freedom. The ethic community is based on individuals’ seeking for the supreme good. Man’s heavenly hope can only be realized in the kingdom of God.This article argues that the introduction of teleological methodology makes Kant achieve the process of “evolution” from nature, culture to virtue and the unity of nature and freedom, thus a demonstration of reasonable hope. The process of reasonable hope means a basis of reason and moral law, the argument design of teleology and the fundamental aim of the reality of legislation of freedom. The achievement of freedom, as it of happiness, is done in the same process. The object of hope is happiness. The matched virtue is not only related to the legislation of freedom,which belongs to people, but also possible from the teleological point of view. The significance of Kant’s hope philosophy is that man’s hope is not only possible in theory(logic) but also confirmed by natural systems and the development of humanhistory to some extent(teleological point of view). Therefore, the hope is reasonable.This hope is the hope of modern people. It doesn’t exist in begging, prayer and waiting, but in the real achievement of freedom. In other words, man’s hope is achieving happiness through freedom in Kantian Philosophy, which is the very difference from the hope as the sacred one, or to say, Kant endows virtue in middle ancient times with modern earthly significance. However, the root of hope is shaking for the sake of the lack of objective certainty in the principle of purposiveness and the inner conflicts in critical philosophy. In fact, the development of history and human is the aftermaths of seeking freedom which is done by trained reason with teleology.That is to say, the practice of the real people creates it.