KANT'S CRITIQUE OF TELEOLOGY IN BIOLOGICAL EXPLANATION

More documents

Recommendations

Info

74 Kant's Logic other. We can thus say that while it is true that the soul is not blue, it is false to say that it is non-blue, just as it is false that it is blue. However, membership or lack of membership in the appropriate genus is obviously not always analytic in a given conceptual system. When membership in the genus is a synthetic predicate or contingent property, then the situation becomes somewhat more complicated: and just such a case occurs in the antinomies. In various reflections and lectures (at least according to the notes his students took) Kant provided a number of mutually incompatible explanations of the nature of infinite judgments. Thus, it is probably impossible to give an interpretation that will make all his recorded remarks on the subject consistent. However, the problem that Kant is dealing with on all these occasions is the same: the principium exclusi medii, the Law of the Excluded Middle. 33 The common denominator of all Kant's inconsistent remarks on infinite judgments is that the Law of the Excluded Middle does not automatically apply to the conjunction of an affirmative and an infinite judgment as it does to the conjunction of an affirmative and a negative judgment. Tertium datur Nowhere in the Critique of Pure Reason does Kant say that infinite judgments play a significant role in dialectical illusion. However, the paradigmatic example used to illustrate the logical structure of the antinomies does in fact involve just such a 33 Cf. e.g. the following two explanations taken from the lecture notes of Kant's students (which represent perhaps not so much what Kant said as what the students understood him to have meant): "In infinite judgments I imagine that the subject is contained in a different sphere than that of the predicate. For example, anima est non-mortalis; here, I imagine that the soul does not belong to the mortals, but I think still more, namely, that it belongs to the immortals, I imagine it in a different sphere as contained in the concept." (Ak 24,578; hyphen added) "But if I say: anima est non-mortalis: then I say not merely that the soul contains nothing mortal, but, moreover, that it is also contained in the sphere of everything that is not mortal ... I do not actually say est immortalis, but rather I say: that among all concepts in general which might be conceived outside the concept of mortality the soul can be found. And this actually constitutes the infinite judgment." (Ak 24,940; hyphen added). Cf. also Ak 16, 635-641.
Tertium datur 75 judgment. Let us now turn to the question of how such judgments can lead to particular "dialectical" difficulties. In a digression on Zeno (B530-35), Kant uses a purportedly simple example to display the logical relations of the propositions in an antinomy. He points out (B531) that there is a contradiction between the affirmative proposition : 5) Every body is good-smelling (every body smells good) and the negative proposition: 6) Some bodies are not good-smelling (some bodies don't smell good). But we could replace (6) with an infinite judgment such as: 34 7) Some bodies are non-good-smelling (some bodies smell non-good) Propositions (5) and (7) are incompatible, but they are not contradictories in the strict sense. The Law of the Excluded Middle, which applies to the conjunction of (5) and (6) on the basis of their logical form, does not apply to the conjunction of (5) and (7). Only on the presupposition that all bodies have some smell are (5) and (7) contradictories. Without this assumption both could be false, e.g. if all bodies are odorless or some bodies are odorless but none are bad smelling (having an odor is obviously a synthetic predicate). The apparent contradiction between (5) and (7) thus proves to be, in Kant's sense, a merely contrary opposition. Both propositions could be false, but both could not be true; the dialectical illusion of a contradiction disappears as soon as this is recognized. Here we are dealing only with a logical illusion. As Kant himself says: If someone were to say, that every body smells either good or it smells not good, a third case occurs, namely that it does not smell (diffuse) at all, and 34 The reformulation of the opposition as good-smelling/bad-smelling proposed by Wolff (Der Begriff, pp. 48-56) and occasionally simply carried out in English and French translations (e.g. Meikeljohn, Barni and Archambault) disposes of the "logical word non" in the formulation and transforms the infinite judgment into a straightforward affirmative judgment which is incompatible with another affirmative judgment for reasons of content. However, Kant's problem is not that "contrary" predicates such as good-smelling and bad-smelling, or black and white could be confused with "contradictory" predicates; the problem is rather that judgments ascribing "contradictory" predicates (good-smelling, not-goodsmelling; mortal, non-mortal) to the same subject at the same time may not themselves be contradictories but merely contraries.
Page 1:
KANT’S CRITIQUE OF TELEOLOGY IN B
Page 5 and 6:
Contents Acknowledgments...........
Page 7 and 8:
Acknowledgements vii This book pres
Page 9:
To My Parents M.M.M. and P.O.M.
Page 12 and 13:
2 Introduction fact the rejection o
Page 14 and 15:
4 Introduction almost exclusively c
Page 16 and 17:
6 Introduction reductionism as the
Page 18 and 19:
8 Theory of the Organism will be se
Page 20 and 21:
10 Theory of the Organism when he f
Page 22 and 23:
12 Theory of the Organism that this
Page 24 and 25:
14 Theory of the Organism not in an
Page 26 and 27:
16 Theory of the Organism formation
Page 28 and 29:
18 Theory of the Organism common sp
Page 30 and 31:
20 Theory of the Organism cated to
Page 32 and 33:
22 Theory of the Organism by these
Page 34 and 35: 24 Kant's Reading of Biology of the
Page 36 and 37: 26 Kant's Reading of Biology for in
Page 38 and 39: 28 Kant's Reading of Biology monly
Page 40 and 41: 30 Kant's Reading of Biology not be
Page 42 and 43: 32 Kant's Reading of Biology to ada
Page 44 and 45: 34 Analytic of Teleological Judgmen
Page 64 and 65: 54 Antinomies of Reason tent is par
Page 66 and 67: 56 Antinomies of Reason antinomies
Page 68 and 69: 58 Antinomies of Reason shows that
Page 70 and 71: 60 Antinomies of Reason categories
Page 72 and 73: 62 Antinomies of Reason "only condi
Page 74 and 75: 64 Antinomies of Reason described;
Page 76 and 77: 66 Kant's Logic For the true opposi
Page 78 and 79: 68 Kant's Logic outside the sphere
Page 80 and 81: 70 Kant's Logic In contrast to Lamb
Page 82 and 83: 72 Kant's Logic predicate under con
Page 86 and 87: 76 Kant's Logic then both conflicti
Page 88 and 89: 78 Kant's Logic Both conflicting pr
Page 90 and 91: 80 The Unconditioned and the Infini
Page 108 and 109: 98 Antinomy of Division Antithesis
Page 110 and 111: 100 Antinomy of Division justificat
Page 112 and 113: 102 Antinomy of Division and thus p
Page 114 and 115: 104 Antinomy of Division why it is
Page 116 and 117: 106 Antinomy of Division B552-53) g
Page 118 and 119: 108 Antinomy of Division "machine"
Page 120 and 121: 110 Antinomy of Freedom How far the
Page 122 and 123: 112 Antinomy of Freedom of momentum
Page 124 and 125: 114 Antinomy of Freedom the Third a
Page 126 and 127: 116 Antinomy of Freedom If Kant mea
Page 128 and 129: 118 Antinomy of Freedom phenomena i
Page 130 and 131: 120 Antinomy of Freedom In the Crit
Page 132 and 133: 122 Antinomy of Freedom must appear
Page 134 and 135:
124 Systematics of Antinomy I do no
Page 136 and 137:
126 Summary position proves to be n
Page 138 and 139:
128 Antinomy of Judgment An antinom
Page 140 and 141:
130 Antinomy of Judgment §74 The r
Page 142 and 143:
132 Antinomy of Judgment must have
Page 144 and 145:
134 Antinomy of Judgment dialectic.
Page 146 and 147:
136 Antinomy of Judgment we cannot
Page 148 and 149:
138 Interpretations of the Antinomy
Page 150 and 151:
Page 152 and 153:
Page 154 and 155:
Page 156 and 157:
Page 158 and 159:
Page 160 and 161:
Page 162 and 163:
152 Heuristic but Necessary Princip
Page 164 and 165:
Page 166 and 167:
Page 168 and 169:
Page 170 and 171:
Page 172 and 173:
162 Resolution of the Antinomy the
Page 174 and 175:
164 Resolution of the Antinomy know
Page 176 and 177:
166 Resolution of the Antinomy a wh
Page 178 and 179:
168 Resolution of the Antinomy able
Page 180 and 181:
170 Resolution of the Antinomy ous
Page 182 and 183:
172 Resolution of the Antinomy intr
Page 184 and 185:
174 Resolution of the Antinomy tion
Page 186 and 187:
176 Resolution of the Antinomy meth
Page 188 and 189:
178 Resolution of the Antinomy anyt
Page 190:
180 Summary acquainted with" a caus
Page 194 and 195:
184 Bibliography Bommersheim, Paul,
Page 196 and 197:
186 Bibliography Fraisse, Jean Clau
Page 198 and 199:
188 Bibliography Kraemer, Eric Russ
Page 200 and 201:
190 Bibliography & E. Mendelsohn) B
Page 202 and 203:
192 Bibliography Roretz, Karl, "Zur
Page 204 and 205:
194 Bibliography American and Conti
Page 206 and 207:
196 Index 144; 154; 167; 169; final
Page 208 and 209:
198 Index mere understanding 47; 13
show all

KANT'S CRITIQUE OF TELEOLOGY IN BIOLOGICAL EXPLANATION

Create successful ePaper yourself

Delete template?

Save as template?