Karl Philipp Moritz’s Notion of ‘Ideal Purposiveness’ and Kant’s Critique of ‘Objective Inner Purposiveness’

Abstract

In this paper, I evaluate the claim that Karl Philipp Moritz’s conception of inner, or ‘ideal’, purposiveness anticipates Kant’s notion of subjective purposiveness. I analyse Moritz’s considered position of artistic beauty qua ideal and internal purposiveness, drawing from his mature publications on aesthetics. I demonstrate that while Kant’s notion of subjective purposiveness is meaningfully different from Moritz’s ideal/inner purposiveness, and that Kant ultimately rejects Moritz’s conception, he also takes Moritz’s conception of purposiveness to meaningfully approach the correct account of beauty, showing why this is.