---

This book establishes important interconnections between Immanuel Kant´s conception of proper science, his views on biology, and his reception of late 18th century biological theories, taking into account published works, lectures, and the Opus postumum.

---

This book provides a novel treatment of Immanuel Kant´s views on proper natural science and biology. The status of biology in Kant´s system of science is often taken to be problematic. By analyzing Kant´s philosophy of biology in relation to his conception of proper science, the present book determines Kant´s views on the scientific status of biology. Combining a broad ideengeschichtlich approach with a detailed historical reconstruction of philosophical and scientific texts, the book establishes important interconnections between Kant´s philosophy of science, his views on biology, and his reception of late 18 th century biological theories. It discusses Kant´s views on science and biology as articulated in his published writings and in the Opus postumum . The book shows that although biology is a non-mathematical science and the relation between biology and other natural sciences is not specified, Kant did allow for the possibility of providing scientific explanations in biology and assigned biology a specific domain of investigation.

---

Acknowledgments.- Note on citation and translation.- 1. Introduction: Kant on Science and Biology.- 2. Kant´s Conception of Proper Science.- 3. Mechanical Explanation and Grounding.- 4. Kant on Teleology.- 5. Kant on the Domain and Method of Biology.- 6. Kant on the Systematicity of Physics and the Opus postumum .- 7. Vital Forces and Organisms in the Opus postumum .- 8. Materialism, Hylozoism, and Natural History in the Opus postumum .- 9. Concluding Remarks.

---

Hein van den Berg studied philosophy at the Rijksuniversiteit Groningen. He is postdoctoral researcher at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam and TU Dortmund. With the book "Kant on Proper Science: Biology in the Critical Philosophy and the Opus postumum" he obtained his PhD cum laude in 2011. This book has been awarded the Research Prize Praemium Erasmianum.

---