Journal of Siberian Federal University. Humanities & Social Sciences / Cosmology and Teleology: Purposiveness in the Study of the Universe through the Reading of Kants Third Critique

Full text (.pdf)
Issue
Journal of Siberian Federal University. Humanities & Social Sciences. 2012 5 (9)
Authors
Nesteruk, Alexei V.
Contact information
Nesteruk, Alexei V. : University of Portsmouth , Lion Gate Building, PORTSMOUTH, PO1 3HF, UK , e-mail:
Keywords
cosmology; teleology; judgement; purposiveness; explicability; humanity
Abstract

This paper investigates the delimiters in cosmological research which originate in the structure of the human knower, in particular, how the purposiveness of human actions cascades towards the purposiveness of cosmological research. It is not dealing with a traditional teleology, which would imply the study of the purposiveness of the universes physical evolution. It rather deals with a formal purposiveness of cosmology related to the explicability of the universe. This explicability is linked to the human intentional search for the sense of its own existence in the universe, so that the purpose of explanation in cosmology is related to the explication of the human condition. It is argued, in particular, that the theoretical representations of the universe as a whole and the Big Bang (as the encapsulated origin of the universe) act as the telos of cosmological explanation and, hence, as well, as the telos of anthropological explanation related to the origin of individual persons at birth. As a historic-philosophical reference, the method of Kants Critique of Judgment is used, which is quite novel and unexpected in questions related to the philosophy of science.

Pages
1304-1335
Paper at repository of SibFU
https://elib.sfu-kras.ru/handle/2311/3030

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