Eric Weil’s Reading of the Critique of the Power of Judgment
Abstract
This study deals with Eric Weil’s interpretation of the Critique of the Power of Judgment. According to Weil, the Third Critique succeeds in understanding nature in such a way that it allows for the achievement of moral action. In so doing, Kant rediscovers the concept of cosmos. But nature only appears as a cosmos to the moral subject, that is, to the human being as he raises the question of meaning. In Weil’s words, the Third Critique thus reconciles the world of facts and that of meaning. It discovers a layer of human experience where facts and meaning are not yet separated. This discovery leads Kant to inaugurate a philosophy of meaning that breaks away with ontology. However Kant uses a conceptual language that obliterates his own discovery. Eric Weil’s own project, especially in his Logic of Philosophy, is to develop a philosophy of meaning that is in line with his reading of the Third Critique. Therefore, this study also examines how Weil’s idea of a “logic of philosophy” sheds some light on his understanding of Kant’s Critique of the Power of Judgment.