In this paper I propose a new account of living natural products in Kant's physical geography. I argue that Kant adopts Buffon's twofold conception of natural history, which consists of a general theory of nature as a physical nexus of causes and a particular account of living natural products in the setting of the earth. Yet in contrast to Buffon, who placed the two parts of natural history on equal epistemic footing, Kant's physical geography can be understood as a second, pragmatic level of inquiry that stands under the formal conditions of nature outlined in Universal Natural History. On the higher, formal level, natural history provides a physical account of time and space as an expanding causal sequence. On the lower, pragmatic level, physical geography provides a causal account of particular natural products as developing within a specific place. I argue that this two-tiered account not only clarifies the relation between metaphysics and experience in Kant's pre-critical philosophy, it also sheds light on the continuity between the method of physical geography and the systematisation of nature presented in the critical philosophy.

中文翻译：

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康德自然地理学中的天然生命产物。

在本文中，我提出了康德自然地理学中关于天然生物产品的新描述。我认为，康德采用了布冯的自然历史的双重概念，该概念包括自然界作为原因的物理联系的一般性理论，以及对地球环境中天然生物的特殊描述。然而，与布冯将自然历史的两个部分置于平等的认知基础上相反，康德的自然地理可以理解为第二种实用主义的探究，处于普遍自然历史概述的自然形式条件下。在较高的形式层次上，自然历史提供了对时间和空间的物理解释，作为不断扩大的因果序列。在较低的实用层面上，自然地理学提供了特定自然产品在特定地方发展的因果关系。我认为，这个分为两层的说明不仅阐明了康德的批判哲学之前的形而上学与经验之间的关系，而且还阐明了自然地理方法与批判哲学中提出的自然系统化之间的连续性。