Single Idea 18239

[catalogued under 22. Metaethics / B. Value / 1. Nature of Value / f. Ultimate value]

Full Idea

Kant objects that the world must have a final purpose in order to be worth contemplating, so contemplation cannot be that final purpose.

Gist of Idea

What is contemplated must have a higher value than contemplation

Source

report of Immanuel Kant (Critique of Judgement II: Teleological [1790]) by Christine M. Korsgaard - Aristotle and Kant on the Source of Value 8 'Arist and'

Book Reference

Korsgaard,Christine M.: 'Creating the Kingdom of Ends' [CUP 1996], p.244


A Reaction

That is a very good objection. If we contemplate the ordered heavens, the ordering of the heavens seems to have a greater value than our contemplation of them. The reply is that the contemplation is the final purpose being contemplated!

Related Ideas

Idea 18231 Anaxagoras said a person would choose to be born to contemplate the ordered heavens [Anaxagoras]

Idea 18233 Contemplation is final because it is an activity which is not a process [Korsgaard]