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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 Ref
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]
18239 | What is contemplated must have a higher value than contemplation [Kant, by Korsgaard] |
22053 | The Critique of Judgement aims for a principle that unities humanity and nature [Kant, by Bowie] |
18237 | Without men creation would be in vain, and without final purpose [Kant] |
18238 | Only a good will can give man's being, and hence the world, a final purpose [Kant] |