Critique of the Power of Judgment §10: End, Purposiveness, Pleasure, and Will

by Corry Shores
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Transcendentally speaking (i.e., without regard for empirical matters, such as pleasure), an end is the object of a concept insofar as the concept is considered as the cause (the ground of possibility) of its object. In other words, when the concept of something is presupposed for that object to be, or for it to be thought, then it is an end. Purposiveness is the concept of an object being the cause of that object. The representation of the end is presupposed for it to be an outcome. Pleasure is our consciousness of such a representation, which allows us to maintain this state of awareness; while displeasure is the consciousness of the representation that thwarts pleasure (§10 105b). Will is the faculty of desire’s being in relation to representations of ends. Something is purposive only if it relates to ends and thus also to will (§10 105c).

(page numbers from: Kant, Immanuel. Critique of the Power of Judgment. Transls. & Eds. Paul Guyer & Eric Matthews. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000.)

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