cannot produce one, however far we may investigate nature by means of
experience and, in reference to the purposive combination apparent in
it, call in Ideas of Reason (which must be theoretical for physical
problems). What is the use, one might well complain, of placing at the
basis of all these arrangements a great Understanding incommensurable
by us, and supposing it to govern the world according to design, if
nature does not and cannot tell us anything of the final design? For
without this we cannot refer all these natural purposes to any common
point, nor can we form any teleological principle, sufficient either
for cognising the purposes collected in a system, or for forming a
concept of the Supreme Understanding, as Cause of such a nature, that
could serve as a standard for our Judgement reflecting teleologically
thereon. I should thus have an _artistic Understanding_ for scattered
purposes, but no _Wisdom_ for a final purpose, in which final purpose
nevertheless must be contained the determining ground of the said
Understanding. But in the absence of a final purpose which pure Reason
alone can supply (because all purposes in the world are empirically
conditioned, and can contain nothing absolutely good but only what is
good for this or that regarded as a contingent design), and which alone
would teach me what properties, what degree, and what relation of the
Supreme Cause to nature I have to think in order to judge of nature as
a teleological system; how and with what right do I dare to extend at
pleasure my very limited concept of that original Understanding (which
I can base on my limited knowledge of the world), of the Might of that
original Being in actualising its Ideas, and of its Will to do so, and
complete this into the Idea of an Allwise, Infinite Being? If this is
to be done theoretically, it would presuppose omniscience in me, in
order to see into the purposes of nature in their whole connexion, and
in addition the power of conceiving all possible plans, in comparison
with which the present plan would be judged on [sufficient] grounds
as the best. For without this complete knowledge of the effect I can
arrive at no determinate concept of the Supreme Cause, which can only
be found in the concept of an Intelligence infinite in every respect,
_i.e._ the concept of a Deity, and so I can supply no foundation for
Theology.
Hence, with every possible extension of physical Teleology, according
to the propositions above laid down we may say: By the constitution
and the principles of our cognitive faculty we can think of nature, in
its purposive arrangements which have become known to us, in no other
way than as the product of an Understanding to which it is subject.
But the theoretical investigation of nature can never reveal to us
whether this Understanding may not also, with the whole of nature and
its production, have had a final design (which would not lie in the
nature of the sensible world). On the contrary, with all our knowledge
of nature it remains undecided whether that Supreme Cause is its
original ground according to a final purpose, or not rather by means
of an Understanding determined by the mere necessity of its nature to
produce certain forms (according to the analogy of what we call the
art-instinct in animals); without it being necessary to ascribe to
it even wisdom, much less the highest wisdom combined with all other
properties requisite for the perfection of its product.
Hence Physico-theology is a misunderstood physical Teleology, only
serviceable as a preparation (propaedeutic) for Theology; and it is
only adequate to this design by the aid of a foreign principle on which
it can rely, and not in itself, as its name would intimate.
§ 86. _Of Ethico-theology_
The commonest Understanding, if it thinks over the presence of things
in the world, and the existence of the world itself, cannot forbear
from the judgement that all the various creatures, no matter how great
the art displayed in their arrangement, and how various their purposive
mutual connexion,--even the complex of their numerous systems (which
we incorrectly call worlds),--would be for nothing, if there were not
also men (rational beings in general). Without men the whole creation
would be a mere waste, in vain, and without final purpose. But it is
not in reference to man’s cognitive faculty (theoretical Reason) that
the being of everything else in the world gets its worth; he is not
there merely that there may be some one to _contemplate_ the world.
For if the contemplation of the world only afforded a representation
of things without any final purpose, no worth could accrue to its
being from the mere fact that it is known; we must presuppose for it
a final purpose, in reference to which its contemplation itself has
worth. Again it is not in reference to the feeling of pleasure, or to
the sum of pleasures, that we think a final purpose of creation as
given; _i.e._ we do not estimate that absolute worth by well-being or
by enjoyment (whether bodily or mental), or in a word, by happiness.
For the fact that man, if he exists, takes this for his final design,
gives us no concept as to why in general he should exist, and as to
what worth he has in himself to make his existence pleasant. He must,
therefore, be supposed to be the final purpose of creation, in order
to have a rational ground for holding that nature must harmonise with
his happiness, if it is considered as an absolute whole according
to principles of purposes.--Hence there remains only the faculty of
desire; not, however, that which makes man dependent (through sensuous
impulses) upon nature, nor that in respect of which the worth of his
being depends upon what he receives and enjoys. But the worth which
he alone can give to himself, and which consists in what he does, how
and according to what principles he acts, and that not as a link in
nature’s chain but in the _freedom_ of his faculty of desire--_i.e._ a
good will--is that whereby alone his being can have an absolute worth,
and in reference to which the being of the world can have a _final
purpose_.
The commonest judgement of healthy human Reason completely accords
with this, that it is only as a moral being that man can be a final
purpose of creation; if we but direct men’s attention to the question
and incite them to investigate it. What does it avail, one will say,
that this man has so much talent, that he is so active therewith, and
that he exerts thereby a useful influence over the community, thus
having a great worth both in relation to his own happy condition and
to the benefit of others, if he does not possess a good will? He is a
contemptible Object considered in respect of his inner self; and if the
creation is not to be without any final purpose at all, he, who as man
belongs to it, must, in a world under moral laws, inasmuch as he is a
bad man, forfeit his subjective purpose (happiness). This is the only
condition under which his existence can accord with the final purpose.
If now we meet with purposive arrangements in the world and, as Reason
inevitably requires, subordinate the purposes that are only conditioned
to an unconditioned, supreme, _i.e._ final, purpose; then we easily see
in the first place that we are thus concerned not with a purpose of
nature (internal to itself), so far as it exists, but with the purpose
of its existence along with all its ordinances, and, consequently, with
the ultimate _purpose of creation_, and specially with the supreme
condition under which can be posited a final purpose (_i.e._ the ground
which determines a supreme Understanding to produce the beings of the
world).
Since now it is only as a moral being that we recognise man as the
purpose of creation, we have in the first place a ground (at least, the
chief condition) for regarding the world as a whole connected according
to purposes, and as a _system_ of final causes. And, more especially,
as regards the reference (necessary for us by the constitution of our
Reason) of natural purposes to an intelligent World Cause, we have _one
principle_ enabling us to think the nature and properties of this First
Cause as supreme ground in the kingdom of purposes, and to determine
its concept. This physical Teleology could not do; it could only lead
to indeterminate concepts thereof, unserviceable alike in theoretical
and in practical use.
From the principle, thus determined, of the causality of the Original
Being we must not think Him merely as Intelligence and as legislative
for nature, but also as legislating supremely in a moral kingdom of
purposes. In reference to the _highest good_, alone possible under
His sovereignty, viz. the existence of rational beings under moral
laws, we shall think this Original Being as _all-knowing_: thus our
inmost dispositions (which constitute the proper moral worth of the
actions of rational beings of the world) will not be hid from Him.
We shall think Him as _all-mighty_: thus He will be able to make the
whole of nature accord with this highest purpose. We shall think Him
as _all-good_, and at the same time as _just_: because these two
properties (which when united constitute _Wisdom_) are the conditions
of the causality of a supreme Cause of the world, as highest good,
under moral laws. So also all the other transcendental properties,
such as _Eternity_, _Omnipresence_, etc. [for goodness and justice are
moral properties[132]], which are presupposed in reference to such a
final purpose, must be thought in Him.--In this way _moral Teleology_
supplies the deficiency in _physical Teleology_, and first establishes
a _Theology_; because the latter, if it did not borrow from the former
without being observed, but were to proceed consistently, could only
found a _Demonology_, which is incapable of any definite concept.
But the principle of the reference of the world to a supreme Cause, as
Deity, on account of the moral purposive destination of certain beings
in it, does not accomplish this by completing the physico-teleological
ground of proof and so taking this necessarily as its basis. It is
sufficient _in itself_ and directs attention to the purposes of
nature and the investigation of that incomprehensible great art lying
hidden behind its forms, in order to confirm incidentally by means of
natural purposes the Ideas that pure practical Reason furnishes. For
the concept of beings of the world under moral laws is a principle
(_a priori_) according to which man must of necessity judge himself.
Further, if there is in general a World Cause acting designedly and
directed towards a purpose, this moral relation must be just as
necessarily the condition of the possibility of a creation, as that
in accordance with physical laws (if, that is, this intelligent Cause
has also a final purpose). This is regarded _a priori_ by Reason as a
necessary fundamental proposition for it in its teleological judging
of the existence of things. It now only comes to this, whether we have
sufficient ground for Reason (either speculative or practical) to
ascribe to the supreme Cause, acting in accordance with purposes, a
_final purpose_. For it may _a priori_ be taken by us as certain that
this, by the subjective constitution of our Reason and even of the
Reason of other beings as far as we can think it, can be nothing else
than _man under moral laws_: since otherwise the purposes of nature in
the physical order could not be known _a priori_, especially as it can
in no way be seen that nature could not exist without such purposes.
_Remark_
Suppose the case of a man at the moment when his mind is disposed to a
moral sensation. If surrounded by the beauties of nature, he is in a
state of restful, serene enjoyment of his being, he feels a want, viz.
to be grateful for this to some being or other. Or if another time he
finds himself in the same state of mind when pressed by duties that he
can and will only adequately discharge by a voluntary sacrifice, he
again feels in himself a want, viz. to have thus executed a command
and obeyed a Supreme Lord. Or, again; if he has in some heedless way
transgressed his duty, but without becoming answerable to men, his
severe self-reproach will speak to him with the voice of a judge to
whom he has to give account. In a word, he needs a moral Intelligence,
in order to have a Being for the purpose of his existence, which may
be, conformably to this purpose, the cause of himself and of the
world. It is vain to assign motives behind these feelings, for they
are immediately connected with the purest moral sentiment, because
_gratitude_, _obedience_, and _humiliation_ (submission to deserved
chastisement) are mental dispositions that make for duty; and the mind
which is inclined towards a widening of its moral sentiment here only
voluntarily conceives an object that is not in the world in order where
possible to render its duty before such an one. It is therefore at
least possible and grounded too in our moral disposition to represent
a pure moral need of the existence of a Being, by which our morality
gains strength or even (at least according to our representation) more
scope, viz. a new object for its exercise. That is, [there is a need]
to assume a morally-legislating Being outside the world, without any
reference to theoretical proofs, still less to self-interest, from pure
moral grounds free from all foreign influence (and consequently only
subjective), on the mere recommendation of a pure practical Reason
legislating by itself alone. And although such a mental disposition
might seldom occur or might not last long, but be transient and without
permanent effect, or might even pass away without any meditation on the
object represented in such shadowy outline, or without care to bring
it under clear concepts--there is yet here unmistakably the ground why
our moral capacity, as a subjective principle, should not be contented
in its contemplation of the world with its purposiveness by means of
natural causes, but should ascribe to it a supreme Cause governing
nature according to moral principles.--In addition, we feel ourselves
constrained by the moral law to strive for a universal highest purpose
which yet we, in common with the rest of nature, are incapable of
attaining; and it is only so far as we strive for it that we can judge
ourselves to be in harmony with the final purpose of an intelligent
World Cause (if such there be). Thus is found a pure moral ground
of practical Reason for assuming this Cause (since it can be done
without contradiction), in order that we may no more regard that effort
of Reason as quite idle, and so run the risk of abandoning it from
weariness.
With all this, so much only is to be said, that though _fear_ first
produces _gods_ (demons), it is _Reason_ by means of its moral
principles that can first produce the concept of _God_ (even when, as
commonly is the case, one is unskilled in the Teleology of nature,
or is very doubtful on account of the difficulty of adjusting by
a sufficiently established principle its mutually contradictory
phenomena). Also, the inner _moral_ purposive destination of man’s
being supplies that in which natural knowledge is deficient, by
directing us to think, for the final purpose of the being of all things
(for which no other principle than an _ethical_ one is satisfactory to
Reason), the supreme Cause [as endowed] with properties, whereby it is
able to subject the whole of nature to that single design (for which
nature is merely the instrument),--_i.e._ to think it as a _Deity_.
§ 87. _Of the moral proof of the Being of God_
There is a _physical Teleology_, which gives sufficient ground of
proof to our theoretical reflective Judgement to assume the being of
an intelligent World-Cause. But we find also in ourselves and still
more in the concept of a rational being in general endowed with freedom
(of his causality) a _moral Teleology_. However, as the purposive
reference, together with its law, is determined _a priori_ in ourselves
and therefore can be cognised as necessary, this internal conformity
to law requires no intelligent cause external to us; any more than we
need look to a highest Understanding as the source of the purposiveness
(for every possible exercise of art) that we find in the geometrical
properties of figures. But this moral Teleology concerns us as beings
of the world, and therefore as beings bound up with other things in the
world; upon which latter, whether as purposes or as objects in respect
of which we ourselves are final purpose, the same moral laws require
us to pass judgement. This moral Teleology, then, has to do with the
reference of our own causality to purposes and even to a final purpose
that we must aim at in the world, as well as with the reciprocal
reference of the world to that moral purpose, and the external
possibility of its accomplishment (to which no physical Teleology can
lead us). Hence the question necessarily arises, whether it compels
our rational judgement to go beyond the world and seek an intelligent
supreme principle for that reference of nature to the moral in us; in
order to represent nature as purposive even in reference to our inner
moral legislation and its possible accomplishment. There is therefore
certainly a moral Teleology, which is connected on the one hand with
the _nomothetic_ of freedom and on the other with that of nature; just
as necessarily as civil legislation is connected with the question
where the executive authority is to be sought, and in general in every
case [with the question] wherein Reason is to furnish a principle
of the actuality of a certain regular order of things only possible
according to Ideas.-- We shall first set forth the progress of Reason
from that moral Teleology and its reference to physical, to _Theology_;
and then make some observations upon the possibility and the validity
of this way of reasoning.
If we assume the being of certain things (or even only certain forms of
things) to be contingent and so to be possible only through something
else which is their cause, we may seek for the unconditioned ground of
this causality of the supreme (and so of the conditioned) either in
the physical or the teleological order (either according to the _nexus
effectivus_ or the _nexus finalis_). That is, we may either ask, what
is the supreme productive cause of these things; or what is their
supreme (absolutely unconditioned) purpose, _i.e._ the final purpose of
that cause in its production of this or all its products generally? In
the second case it is plainly presupposed that this cause is capable
of representing purposes to itself, and consequently is an intelligent
Being; at least it must be thought as acting in accordance with the
laws of such a being.
If we follow the latter order, it is a FUNDAMENTAL PROPOSITION to
which even the commonest human Reason is compelled to give immediate
assent, that if there is to be in general a _final purpose_ furnished
_a priori_ by Reason, this can be no other than _man_ (every rational
being of the world) _under moral laws_.[133] For (and so every one
judges) if the world consisted of mere lifeless, or even in part of
living but irrational, beings, its existence would have no worth
because in it there would be no being who would have the least concept
of what worth is. Again, if there were intelligent beings, whose
Reason were only able to place the worth of the existence of things
in the relation of nature to themselves (their well-being), but not
to furnish of itself an original worth (in freedom), then there would
certainly be (relative) purposes in the world, but no (absolute) final
purpose, because the existence of such rational beings would be always
purposeless. But the moral laws have this peculiar characteristic that
they prescribe to Reason something as a purpose without any condition,
and consequently exactly as the concept of a final purpose requires.
The existence of a Reason that can be for itself the supreme law in the
purposive reference, in other words the existence of rational beings
under moral laws, can therefore alone be thought as the final purpose
of the being of a world. If on the contrary this be not so, there would
be either no purpose at all in the cause of its being, or there would
be purposes, but no final purpose.
The moral law as the formal rational condition of the use of our
freedom obliges us by itself alone, without depending on any purpose as
material condition; but it nevertheless determines for us, and indeed
_a priori_, a final purpose towards which it obliges us to strive;
and this purpose is the _highest good in the world_ possible through
freedom.
The subjective condition under which man (and, according to all our
concepts, every rational finite being) can set a final purpose before
himself under the above law is happiness. Consequently, the highest
physical good possible in the world, to be furthered as a final purpose
as far as in us lies, is _happiness_, under the objective condition of
the harmony of man with the law of _morality_ as worthiness to be happy.
But it is impossible for us in accordance with all our rational
faculties to represent these two requirements of the final purpose
proposed to us by the moral law, as _connected_ by merely natural
causes, and yet as conformable to the Idea of that final purpose. Hence
the concept of the _practical necessity_ of such a purpose through
the application of our powers does not harmonise with the theoretical
concept of the _physical possibility_ of working it out, if we connect
with our freedom no other causality (as a means) than that of nature.
Consequently, we must assume a moral World-Cause (an Author of the
world), in order to set before ourselves a final purpose consistently
with the moral law; and in so far as the latter is necessary, so far
(_i.e._ in the same degree and on the same ground) the former also must
be necessarily assumed; _i.e._ we must admit that there is a God.[134]
This proof, to which we can easily give the form of logical precision,
does not say: it is as necessary to assume the Being of God as to
recognise the validity of the moral law; and consequently he who
cannot convince himself of the first, can judge himself free from the
obligations of the second. No! there must in such case only be given
up the _aiming at_ the final purpose in the world, to be brought about
by the pursuit of the second (viz. a happiness of rational beings
in harmony with the pursuit of moral laws, regarded as the highest
good). Every rational being would yet have to cognise himself as
straitly bound by the precepts of morality, for its laws are formal
and command unconditionally without respect to purposes (as the matter
of volition). But the one requisite of the final purpose, as practical
Reason prescribes it to beings of the world, is an irresistible purpose
imposed on them by their nature (as finite beings), which Reason wishes
to know as subject only to the moral law as inviolable _condition_, or
even as universally set up in accordance with it. Thus Reason takes for
final purpose the furthering of happiness in harmony with morality. To
further this so far as is in our power (_i.e._ in respect of happiness)
is commanded us by the moral law; be the issue of this endeavour what
it may. The fulfilling of duty consists in the form of the earnest
will, not in the intermediate causes of success.
Suppose then that partly through the weakness of all the speculative
arguments so highly extolled, and partly through many irregularities
in nature and the world of sense which come before him, a man is
persuaded of the proposition, There is no God; he would nevertheless be
contemptible in his own eyes if on that account he were to imagine the
laws of duty as empty, invalid and inobligatory, and wished to resolve
to transgress them boldly. Such an one, even if he could be convinced
in the sequel of that which he had doubted at the first, would always
be contemptible while having such a disposition, although he should
fulfil his duty as regards its [external] effect as punctiliously
as could be desired, for [he would be acting] from fear or from the
aim at recompense, without the sentiment of reverence for duty. If,
conversely, as a believer [in God] he performs his duty according
to his conscience, uprightly and disinterestedly, and nevertheless
believes that he is free from all moral obligation so soon as he is
convinced that there is no God, this could accord but badly with an
inner moral disposition.