Technique of the power of judgment and formal technique of nature in 'Critique of the Power of Judgment'

• Grant number: 13/09562-1
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships abroad - Research Internship - Master's degree
• Start date: November 04, 2013
• End date: May 03, 2014
• Field of knowledge: Humanities - Philosophy - History of Philosophy
• Principal Investigator: Ubirajara Rancan de Azevedo Marques
• Grantee: Oscar Vinicius Sillmann Leite
• Supervisor: Giuseppe Micheli
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Filosofia e Ciências (FFC). Universidade Estadual Paulista (UNESP). Campus de Marília. Marília , SP, Brazil
• Institution abroad: Università degli Studi di Padova, Italy
• Associated to the scholarship: 12/03743-1 - Kant and the technic of nature, BP.MS

Abstract

In the Critique of the Power of Judgment Kant introduces the concept of "technic of nature" as a regulative principle of the reflective power of judgment, which is characterized by the philosopher, in the "First Introduction" to that work, as a technic power of judgment. This operation is described, generally, as a judgment of natural objects according to an analogy with human art, such that the object's possibility is considered as if it was grounded in an artistic procedure. Consequently, nature itself is considered as technic, such that is assigned to it an artistic causality, in which the possibility of objects presuppose a concept as the ground of causality, being so distinguished from mere mechanical causality. Judgments that derive from the reflective power of judgment are that in which it operates in a technical mode. This operation occurs in three distinct moments: 1. in elaborating empirical laws in a system; 2. in appreciating natural beauty; 3. in considering certain natural beings internal organicity. The two first cases the technic of nature corresponding to power of judgment actions are called subjective and formal, whereas in the last it is called objective and material. In section VII from "First Introduction" Kant deals with the technic of the power of judgment, qualifying it, in its aesthetic modality, as a mutual agreement between imagination and understanding, characterization to which corresponds the notions of "free play", "harmony of the faculties" or "mutual favour". These notions are important for clarifying what Kant understand by "aesthetic judgments". The goal of this research is to make these notions clear, aiming to explicit the sense of "technic of nature" as grounded in aesthetic technic power of judgment. (AU)