Description:

Lea Ypi joins us from the London School of Economics.

Title: Teleology and Systematic Unity in Kant's Critique of Pure Reason

Abstract:This paper examines the opening paragraphs of one of the least read sections of Kant's first Critique: The Architectonic of pure reason. It compares Kant’s understanding of the architectonic as “the art of the system” to the projects of some of his predecessors, including Leibniz, Wolff, Baumgarten and Lambert. Analysing the analogies and differences between Kant’s conception of architectonic and those present in his historical interlocutors, it highlights the centrality of a teleological interpretation of the link between “ideas” and “ends of reason” to which Kant appeals in this section and in the Logic lectures of the same period. It further explores the analogy between “system” and “organism” that Kant invokes in relation to the use of teleological principles and identifies some continuities and discontinuities between Kant’s position here and the one we find in the introduction to the Critique of Judgment dedicated to the same topic. The paper concludes by suggesting that to better understand the systematic implications of the use of teleological principles in the Architectonic, an alternative interpretation of the first Critique, different from the current sceptic or constructivist readings is required.

Reception immediately following in Crowe 1-140.

This lecture is co-sponsored by the Brady Scholars Program in Ethics and Civic Life.