Investigating Nature under the Guidance of Reason

Abstract

AbstractThis chapter explores the fact that Kant takes the standpoint of a Naturforscher in his race essays. At the center is his view on the role of reason in the investigation of nature. This view is reflected both in his theory of hypothesis and in how he makes room for teleological principles in the investigations of organic formation in general and of hereditary human differences in particular. Studying these topics takes us through nearly all the major theoretical works that Kant produced during his career, from the Critique of Pure Reason (with its account of the systematic unity and regulative principles of reason) to the Critique of the Power of Judgment (with its clarification of the use of teleological principles and articulation of a theory of epigenesis that has been implicit in the race essays). Kant’s theory of race is thereby intertwined with some of his most sophisticated philosophical innovations.