Blackwell Reference Online

Extract

A Zweck was originally a nail in the centre of a target, and hence something aimed at, a goal ( Ziel ). It corresponds to ‘purpose’ or ‘end, aim’ and to the Greek telos. The adjective zweckmässig need not imply that something is designed for a purpose, but only that it serves a purpose or is ‘useful, expedient’, etc. But for Kant, in CJ , an entity is zweckmässig if, and only if, its existence and nature cannot be explained except by a ‘causality according to concepts ’. This characteristic of an entity is its Zweckmässigkeit (‘usefulness, purposiveness, teleology ’). Thus something is zweckmässig not if it serves a Zweck , but if it can only be seen as produced by a Zweck , since a Zweck is the concept of an entity in so far as it contains the ground of the actuality of the entity. If I form the concept of an action, object or state of affairs and then produce it on the basis of my concept, the concept is the Zweck , and the action or entity produced by it, and in accordance with it, is zweckmässig. But an entity can, on Kant's view, be zweckmässig , even if it is not in fact produced by a Zweck or concept: An entity may be such that we cannot explain it except in terms of its concept or purpose, and yet not be the product of a purpose. Kant held that living organisms are of this type: they exhibit Zweckmässigkeit without Zweck. Their purposiveness ... log in or subscribe to read full text