KANT'S CRITIQUE OF TELEOLOGY IN BIOLOGICAL EXPLANATION

24 Kant's Reading of Biology
of the bodies; they were not caused by the constellation of factors but
were rather occasioned, stimulated, triggered, or released by it.
Blumenbach's "Bildungstrieb" for instance became aroused (rege)
in a cell tissue of a particular structure, after which it became
relatively autonomous. 20
These theories provide the point of departure for Kant's reflections
on the structure of biological explanation. In the precritical period
Kant's orientation figure in the search for a "Newton des
Grashalms" was Buffon; later, in the "Critique of Teleological
Judgment," he refers explicitly to Blumenbach.
1.3 Kant's Study of Eighteenth Century Biology
Kant began rather early in his career to concern himself with
problems of biological explanation and always expressed some skepticism
as to the possibility of explaining the organism according to
mechanical laws. From 1756 onward, physical geography, which
included zoological and botanical systematics, belonged to his standard
course offerings as a lecturer in Königsberg. Systematics — at
least below the level of the species — was taken by Kant not as a
merely descriptive enterprise but as a causally explanatory one.
Erich Adickes in Kant als Naturforscher has examined Kant's
sources for these lectures in great detail and was very often able to
determine which authors Kant read and with which authors he was
probably unfamiliar. We need not therefore go into individual cases
here; it is clear on the basis of the work of Adickes that Kant was
aware of and reflected on the most important contemporary developments
in natural history and in theories of generation. We may thus
assume that Kant's philosophical analyses rest on a knowledge of
the empirical material without trying to trace back particular reflections
to the problems encountered by any particular author. The
point is not to show that Kant was "influenced" by some particular
scientist or other; many different scientists had similar problems in
the explanation of the organism.
The development of Kant's thinking about organic nature
runs parallel to the development of his thought about the anorganic
20 Cf. McLaughlin, "Blumenbach."