Overview
Kant's "Critique of Judgment" (1790) explores aesthetics (beauty and the sublime) and teleology (purpose in nature), bridging his earlier critiques of pure and practical reason.
Structure and Purpose of the Work
- Divided into two parts: critique of aesthetic judgment and critique of teleological judgment.
- Serves as a link between Kant’s theories of knowledge (pure reason) and morality (practical reason).
- Examines how we find order and value through both beauty and purpose.
Aesthetic Judgment: Beauty and the Sublime
- Aesthetic judgments are subjective but claim a kind of universality.
- Judgments of beauty are "disinterested"; made for pleasure, not utility or concept.
- The beautiful is appreciated for its form, creating a harmony between imagination and understanding.
- Declaring something beautiful assumes others should agree, though agreement is not required.
- The sublime mixes pleasure and pain; pleasure in reason’s superiority over nature, pain from nature’s overwhelming scale.
- The sublime highlights the limits of sense and the power of reason in appreciating vastness.
Teleological Judgment: Purpose in Nature
- Teleology explains phenomena by their purpose, not just by cause.
- Kant sees teleology as a "regulative principle" to guide understanding, not as a scientific explanation.
- Differentiates between mechanical laws (physics) and teleological views (biology).
- Organisms appear as if their parts serve the whole, suggesting purpose beyond mechanical causality.
- Teleology in nature is provisional; we use it heuristically, not as proof of a cosmic designer.
Human Uniqueness and Moral Teleology
- Humans are unique for their rationality and ability to set personal ends.
- Teleology reaches its peak with moral agents, who act according to self-imposed purposes and moral law.
Limits and Value of Judgment
- Kant focuses on what can be judged or known about beauty and purpose within human cognitive limits.
- He analyzes how judgments of taste and purposiveness arise.
Key Terms & Definitions
- Aesthetic Judgment — Evaluation of beauty or the sublime, based on subjective pleasure.
- Disinterestedness — Judging without personal gain or desire for the object's existence.
- The Sublime — Experience mixing awe and fear in response to vast or powerful phenomena.
- Teleology — Explaining phenomena by their purpose rather than by cause.
- Regulative Principle — A guiding rule for inquiry, not a factual claim about reality.
Action Items / Next Steps
- Review main arguments in each part of the text.
- Read further on how Kant’s ideas influence aesthetics and philosophy of biology.