Kant and Crusius on the Hierarchy of Human Ends

While there has been a surge of studies on Kant's Architectonic of Pure Reason in the last few years, we still lack a comprehensive account of the historical sources that have influenced Kant's emphasis on its moral orientation. In this chapter, I argue that Christian August Crusius is one of these sources. In particular, Crusius's account of ends and their relationships in the Anweisung vernünftig zu leben is a key source for understanding Kant's views on the hierarchy of human ends in the Architectonic. In turn, reading Kant from this perspective allows us to get a better grasp on two issues: whether Kant thinks that obtaining cognition or knowledge is an essential end of reason and what kinds of subordination between ends are at stake in Kant's hierarchy.