Critique of Judgement (Bernard Translation)

of objects, but only indicate the conditions under which we find it necessary to view them; and lastly, that we are thus furnished with a philosophy of pleasure based on principles known before experience original: "a priori".

22

The fundamental principle underlying the process of the Judgment is seen to be the purposiveness of Nature. Nature is viewed as being everywhere adapted to ends or purposes, and thus constitutes a cosmos original: κόσμος, meaning a well-ordered whole or universe. By this means, we regard nature as if its particular empirical Based on observation or experience rather than theory. laws were not isolated and scattered, but connected and related. They derive their unity within their apparent diversity from an intelligence that sits at the source of nature. It is only by assuming such a principle that we can make sense of nature to ourselves. This principle is then said to be a "transcendental condition" for the exercise of our faculty of judgment, but it is valid only for reflective judgment, not for determinant judgment. In Kant’s philosophy, "determinant" judgment applies universal laws to particulars, while "reflective" judgment starts with particulars and seeks to find a universal law for them. It gives us pleasure to view nature in this way, just as the contemplation of chaos would be painful.

But this purposiveness may be only formal and subjective, or real and objective. In some cases, the purposiveness resides in the felt harmony and agreement of the form of the object with our cognitive faculties The mental powers we use for gaining knowledge.. In others, the form of the object is judged to harmonize with the actual purpose intended for its existence. That is to say, in the one case, we judge the form of the object to be purposive—as with a flower—but we could not explain any specific purpose served by it. In the other case, we have a definite...