Abstract

This essay connects the theme of the nature of the world in Kant's pre-critical works (including the published works and the lectures up to the end of the year 1770) with the examination of the problem of causality. Grasping Kant's position from this gradually evolving perspective enables us to present a unified account of the precritical period. It also helps us to see his Critical revolution as an evolutionary turn, in which there is a growing awareness that the connection between substances must emphasize a real connection whose grounding does not depend in an indirect manner on a transcendent being named God.