KANT'S CRITIQUE OF TELEOLOGY IN BIOLOGICAL EXPLANATION

The Organism 107
ground (Erkenntnisgrund). In the antinomy itself the question is,
whether the regress of division can be carried on into infinity or just
indeterminately far. As we saw in the last section, a series in which
the regressus goes in infinitum is supposed to be given as a whole,
and we have seen that this is only possible with a continuum. The
crucial point lies in the way in which the whole is said to be given: a
whole can, according to Kant, be given in intuition without its parts'
being given to the understanding as discrete magnitudes. The infinite
divisibility of space grounds the infinite divisibility of "reality in
space"; and the space of a body is completely given in intuition without
any synthesis of parts. The philosopher can be certain of the
objective reality of the parts, since they are already in intuition
before has dissected the body so far that he can place the intuition
under a concept. Kant also makes it clear that the point at issue is
what should be inferred "when the whole is given in empirical intuition"
(B540). The contradictions in the passages cited above disappear
when we see that the term "given" in (A) is taken in a different
sense than in (B): according to (A) given to intuition, according to (B)
given to the understanding. "For although all parts are contained in
the intuition of the whole, the whole division is not so contained, but
consists only in the continuous decomposition, that is, in the regress
itself, whereby the series first becomes actual" (B552). Interpreted
this way, the propositions in (A) supplement those in (B) and justify
the assertion that the regress proceeds not merely in indefinitum
but in infinitum; for a body that is to be divided is given as a whole to
sensible intuition, which is not the case for the history of the world
system.
As opposed to the regress in time, which cannot be carried on
in infinitum (i.e., is not potentially infinite, since this would make
the series itself, which has already be completed, actually infinite),
the regress of division is potentially infinite because the series itself
only goes as far as the regress in it has advanced; the set of parts is
never actually infinite.
The Organism
The difference between organic and inorganic matter for
Leibniz lay not in the extent of division but in the kind of division. A