Kant's metaphysics of life

Jafarzadehdarzi, Vahid (2013) Kant's metaphysics of life. Masters thesis, Memorial University of Newfoundland.

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Abstract

The present thesis is an attempt to understand the relation between concepts of organized being and life in Kant's philosophy and the status of these concepts in his philosophical system. The main theme of this thesis is the mechanical inexplicability of organized beings due to the peculiar purposiveness of their organization and their relation to the principle of life as the immaterial principle of spontaneous action. Kant's early interest in the concepts in question is manifested in pre-Critical works mainly as the mind-body problem. The first Critique elevates the mind-body problem to the problems of unity of reason and nature, teleology, systematicity and freedom. The third Critique, by introducing the reflecting power of judgment and internal purposiveness, offers a solution to the problem of system and freedom by positing the organized/living being as the mediator between metaphysics and physics and establishes a discourse which could be called a metaphysics of life.

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