Kant on Concrete Universals: An Inquiry into Lowest Species

This paper reconstructs Kant’s notion of concrete universals by illustrating his treatment of lowest species. In doing so, I shall oppose the widespread view that Kant rejects the very notion of a lowest species in the following manner. By distinguishing between two kinds of lowest species in Kant’s logic, I first show how his dismissal of the latter relays on non-deductive arguments and concerns empirical concepts only. Secondly, I argue that Kant’s notion of correspondence between geometrical concepts and the related figures substantiates the idea that he conceived of geometrical notions as lowest species.