Purposiveness
Purposiveness
(in Kant’s philosophydie Zweckmssigkeit) Adaptation whether in the body of an animal or plant to its own needs or in a beautiful object to the human intelligence. We must not say dogmatically, Kant contends, that there is a purpose behind the phenomena, but we can say that they occur as if there were, though we cannot bring the purpose under definite concepts. — A.C.E.