Abstract
On several occasions, Kant posed a dichotomy or trichotomy concerning the possible ways to explain the existence of a thing, within or outside of a proper science. For instance, writing in connection with artifacts and organisms in the Critique of Judgment, he pondered:
Now if one asks why a thing exists, the answer is either that its existence and its generation have no relation at all to a cause acting according to intentions, and in that case one always understands its origin to be in the mechanism of nature; or there is some intentional ground of its existence (as a contingent natural being).
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© 2011 Springer Science+Business Media B.V.
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Kilinc, B. (2011). Kant on Chance and Explanation. In: Dieks, D., Gonzalez, W., Hartmann, S., Uebel, T., Weber, M. (eds) Explanation, Prediction, and Confirmation. The Philosophy of Science in a European Perspective, vol 2. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-1180-8_30
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-1180-8_30
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