Rachel Zuckert, Kant on Beauty and Biology: An Interpretation of the Critique of Judgment (Review)
Author(s): Fred Rauscher
Publication: Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews
Date: 2/10/2012
Abstract: Kant on Beauty and Biology is a bold and remarkable book. Zuckert takes a sweeping approach to Kant's thought while still engaging in detailed textual exegesis and debate with the secondary literature. Hardly a page goes by without reference to part of the literature (at least the English language part of it) on the various topics touched upon by her analysis. She deftly moves from issue to issue, anticipating and answering objections, to defend what to some will seem at first to be implausible claims. I am not entirely convinced of all the details, but I completed the book with a revised view of Kant's Critique of Judgment and its place in Kant's system.
URL: http://ndpr.nd.edu/news/24005-kant-on-beauty-and-biology-an-interpretation-of-the-critique-of-judgment/

Zuckert, Rachel. Kant on Beauty and Biology (Review)
Author(s): Michael Rohlf
Publication: Review of Metaphysics
Date: 12/1/2008
Abstract: Most interpreters approach the work as a collection of separate discussions about aesthetics, various topics in the philosophy of science, and their relations to other topics in Kant's system. Many regard Kant's principle of purposiveness as too vague to impart any substantive unity to his treatment of these topics, and some argue that what coherence the work has derives from elsewhere. Rachel Zuckert, however, opposes such piecemeal approaches. Like Hannah Ginsborg and Cristel Fricke, Zuckert argues that the principle of purposiveness does provide a substantive basis for a unified interpretation, but Zuckert has written the only book that treats the entire Critique of Judgment as a unified work. She develops an original interpretation both of the principle of purposiveness and of how it unifies Kant's overall argument. It is a rich, often ingenious book that makes an important contribution to Kant studies.

Purposiveness without a Purpose (Review)
Author(s): Alix Cohen
Publication: Metascience
Date: 7/1/2009
Abstract: There is no doubt that Zuckert achieves her aim in a way that should open up interesting debates in Kant scholarship. For, by grounding her interpretation of the concept of
purposiveness without a purpose’ on Kant’s account of our judgments about organisms, Kant on Beauty and Biology should lead to a re-evaluation of traditional understandings of this concept in aesthetic judgment.

Rachel Zuckert, Kant on Beauty and Biology: An Interpretation of the Critique of Judgment (Review)
Author(s): Robert Wicks
Publication: British Journal for the History of Philosophy
Date: 12/1/2009
Abstract: Review of above book.

Kant’s Notion of Intrinsic Purposiveness in the Critique of Judgment: A Review Essay (and an Inversion) of Zuckert’s Kant on Beauty and Biology (Review)
Author(s): John Zammito
Publication: Kant Yearbook
Date: 1/1/2009
Abstract: Review essay.

Rachel Zuckert, Kant on Beauty and Biology: An Interpretation of the Critique of Judgment (Review)
Author(s): Mark Fisher
Publication: Journal of the History of Philosophy
Date: 1/1/2009
Abstract: Zuckert has succeeded in providing a novel, provocative, and potentially attractive alternative to other available interpretations of the CJ. She also seems to be right about several important issues, including the importance of Kant’s criticism of the Leibnizean- Wolffian tradition in aesthetics and teleology, not only for the project of the CJ itself, but also for the historical transition in German thought from the pre-Kantian metaphysics of perfection to the post-Kantian metaphysics of the subject. Even those who agree with her general criticisms of the standard view, however, are likely to find Zuckert’s positive claims concerning Kant’s principle of judgment, and the transition in his own view of subjectivity, to be more suggestive than conclusive.

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