Holly Wilson

In the Critique of Pure Reason and in his lectures on logic, Kant distin- guishes between philosophy determined by the worldly concept (Weltbe- griff or in sensu cosmico) and philosophy determined by the scholastic con- cept (Schulbegriff ). In the Critique of Pure Reason, Kant defines the worldly concept as that “which relates to that in which everyone necessa- rily has an interest” which can be opposed to the scholastic concept of philosophy which is limited by optionally chosen ends. Kant opposes the essential and final ends of the worldly concept of philosophy to arbi- trary ends of scholastic philosophy, which are limited by the fact that it is based on a specific kind of skill. In his lectures on Logic, Kant identifies the worldly concept of philosophy as “a science of the highest maxim for the use of our reason” and as the “science of the relation of all cognition and of all use of reason to the ultimate end of human reason, to which, as the highest, all other ends are subordinated, and in which they must all unite to form a unity.”