The Method of Natural History

Abstract

Abstract Kant’s presentation of the antinomy of reflecting judgement can be seen as a culminating moment in his work on natural history. While commentators often deny that there can be a genuine antinomy of reflecting judgement, this chapter argues that when viewed as a conflict between two maxims that arise when natural historians attempt to classify natural products according to material generation, there is an antinomy of reflecting judgement, and, moreover, that it requires a different kind of resolution to the Antinomies of the first Critique. The thrust of Kant’s resolution is to show that if we consider the conflict as one that arises due to the peculiar character of discursive cognition, we can develop a logically consistent method for natural history that retains the conflict between the two maxims.