Please join us on September 26, 2025 for our Fall Colloquium with Rachel Zuckert of Northwestern University. 

 

Title: Kant on Reason and Teleology

Abstract: In the Critique of the Power of Judgment, Kant characterizes a purpose or end (Zweck) as an intention of intelligent activity (literally, a concept that guides the agent to produce an object it describes). He accordingly claims that natural teleology is understood on analogy to reason (rational activity). In this paper, I speculate about Kant's reasons for so understanding purposes, and draw out some implications of his approach, primarily that, for Kant, reason's ends cannot be understood as natural ends.