ABSTRACT
Kant’s criticism of the physico-theological proof commences at A620/B648 and is similar in length to his treatment of the other two proofs: some 10 pages and 16 paragraphs. It is common for it to be labelled as a critique of the design argument (see, for example, Bennett 1974:255). This is slightly misleading. Kant uses his own title, ‘physico-theological proof’, to refer to an argument that starts from the determinate experience ‘of things within the present world’ (A620/B648; cf. Lectures Religion 28:1007). Experience of the present world discloses to us ‘an immeasurable scene of manifoldness, order, purposiveness and beauty, which one may pursue in the infinity of space or in the unbounded division of it’ (A622/B650). Here order and purposiveness in nature are but two examples of the ‘immeasurably great wonders’ (A622/B650) experience of the present world discloses and which point to a God. It is true that in his step-by-step summary of the proof in the eighth paragraph, Kant cites the facts from which the proof proceeds as amounting to ‘purposive order’ (A625/B653). So the focus turns out to be on order and purpose in nature. Yet the title Kant gives to the argument is indicative of a concern for a general attempt to argue from natural philosophy to the existence of a wise and powerful creator.
