[The moderns, from Descartes on, pay an odd tribute to this trait of seeing design, even when we do not – cannot, really – comprehend what we see.

Kant labeled the sensical  “phenomena” (“what we see as designed”) and the nonsensical “noumena” (“what is there in itself”).  We see design in the phenomena, conjuring instrumental causes and formal elements, but we cannot justify projecting our contextualizing intuition of design onto the noumena, beneath the appearances.

Thus, Kant’s Philosophy explains why Moderns are either functionally followers of William Paley (like modern scientists who explore phenomena and do not worry about the noumena) or dysfunctional visionaries (like modern philosophers who came up with the idea of “noumena” in the first place, thereby putting Descartes before the horse).]