Problems with Religion and Politics 343The politics of the Revolution was his favorite topic of conversation,
and he was so curious about the new developments that "he would have
walked for miles to get the mail." Reliable private information gave him
the greatest joy.^44 As late as 1798, he "loved the task of the French with all
his soul, and all the outbreaks of immorality did not make him doubt that
the 'representative system was the best.' "^45 He was "openly a republican."
The court chaplain, a professor of mathematics and defender of Kant, was
apparently one of the few who held the same view.^46 So was Kraus, who
also took great interest in the events in France and "changed entirely into
a republican."^47The Critique ofJudgment (1790):
"Functionality without a Purpose"
Almost immediately after finishing the second Critique in the summer of
1787, Kant went on to "work on the Foundation of the Critique ofTaste."4S
When it finally appeared in 1790, it had turned into the Critique itself.
Two years before he published this "final part of the Critique," he wrote
an essay, "On the Use of Teleological Principles in Philosophy," which ap¬
peared in Der Teutsche Merkur of January and February 1788. The essay
was occasioned by criticisms of two of his papers, "Concept of a Human
Race" and "Conjectures on the Beginning of Human History," which had
appeared late in 1786 in Der Teutsche Merkur. The author was Johann Georg
Adam Forster, the younger son of the famous geographer Johann Reinhold
Forster. Kant wanted to respond, and Reinhold asked in October of 1787
whether Kant could not give his public approval of the "Letters on Kantian
Philosophy." The essay represented for Kant an opportunity to do both,
even though the two matters had little to do with each other.^49
Kant attended to his second concern at the very end of the paper, say¬
ing that the author of the anonymous "Letters" had his full approval and
that he and the anonymous author were working toward a "common cause,"
namely, the cultivation of a "speculative and practical reason in accordance
with firm principles."^30 He also thanked the author, and in the very last
paragraph, in what appears to have been a postscript, he identified Rein-
hold as the author of the letters, expressing his satisfaction that he had re¬
cently been appointed professor of philosophy at Jena. Indeed, Kant re¬
ally must have been pleased that another one of his adherents had obtained
a position: his philosophy was gaining in influence at the academy.
In the essay itself, Kant first tries to clarify his concept of "race" and to