Kant and Totality

Kant's thesis is that Reason seeks to totalize, an aim which, as the Critique of Pure Reason shows, exceeds the grasp of Theoretical Reason. It is only given a manifold that totalizing Reason itself constitutes that totalization is possible, so it is only as Practical that Reason can achieve its aim. For, in governing, via its Pure Principle, specific actions, it constitutes a synthesizable manifold. But, despite the success of Reason in this respect, it fails, despite Kant's best efforts, in another. Totality is the synthesis of heterogeneity and homogeneity, which means that it must preserve the independence of its parts, or otherwise it collapses into unity. So, a totalizing principle that is adequate to what it would subsume must also confer freedom on its potential particulars. This, as has been discussed, Kant's Principle of Pure Practical Reason, does not quite accomplish, since its being adopted presupposes a freedom of choice, i. e. his 'willkur', in agents, that it does not entail. So, it is perhaps this second shortcoming in the pursuit of Totality that motivates a third attempt, namely the Critique of Judgement. The latter offers two notions of Totality--Subjective Universality, i. e. the structure of Aesthetic Judgement, and Organic Whole, the structure of Teleological Judgement. The former given a part, attempts to generate a whole, while, conversely, the latter, given a whole, attempts to specify its parts. But, while both come closer to striking a balance between unity and multiplicity than the preceding Critiques, the former remains arbitrary and contingent, while the latter cannot quite conceive of the organs of an organism as independent of it. In Formaterialism, Evolvement, the balance between homogeneity and heterogeneity is fortuitious, but cultivable, much like Genius, in Kant's system.