Philosophy students: where can I find the German words for Kant's key terms?

@Jeruba: Now that is what I call an uberquestion. Why? What happened to heaving bosoms and Mr. Rochester?

Well, the SEP is what we use to outline agreed-upon concepts. As far as specific terms…hang on, let me look in my bookmarks…here you go.

Try this. I found it extremely unhelpful but impressive for a chalk talk.

http://de.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Datei:Kant_Erkenntnis.jpg&filetimestamp=20080919062206

@gailcalled, now, I know you never actually thought I was writing a romance, or your suggestion might grieve me. As to your question, I am currently taking a course entitled “Introduction to Existential Phenomenology,” which begins by setting Kant and Hegel as a necessary backdrop before proceeding to Kierkegaard and Nietzsche and then to the real Existentialists.

Your link has some helpful terms but doesn’t really cover all the essentials, but thanks for finding it for me.

@wildpotato, I’ll bet you do have what I’m looking for among your bookmarks, and I thought you might, but this glossary isn’t it. Look at the definition of will and there you will see two German terms. This is exactly why I want to see the German words for the concepts: I want to know which one to explore if I want to see the depths and implications of the terms. So a glossary like this with all the German alongside the English would be ideal. Alternately, just an overview of Kant that shows the terms in both languages would do. Pretty much everything I’ve found so far just has the English.

Admittedly, Kant is not my strong point. I am most familiar with his Prolegamena to any Future Metaphysics, but we didn’t do the German too much. We studied this book in my ethics class, and it has a terriffic glossary – but it is unfortunately only partially reproduced on Google, and my own copy is packed away in a basement somewhere in southern Colorado.

So, I do not have a central source for you at the moment, sorry. I’ll get back to you once school gets back in and I have a chance to ask my compatriots.

I have not had a graduate class on Kant, and have only had a mini-undergrad bit on Kant’s ethics – but I believe that the term Kant uses for “will”, generally speaking, is “Wille”.

I think that “transcendental” is similar in both languages – check out the seventh word in this page’s second paragraph.

I know that “sense” in German = Sinn, from Frege. And reference = Begeutung. “Sinn und Bedeutung” is a famous Frege essay.

“Good will” – this one is a bit harder. Can’t find it.

“Understanding” – der Verstand.

That’s great for starters, @wildpotato. Thank you! Those were just examples. I was particularly interested in “good will,” which I see written in various commentaries as “goodwill,” “good will,” and “Good Will.” I especially wanted to know if this was a single noun in German or an adjective plus noun.

I honestly don’t know how one can study a translated work without getting at least a little bit into the original language. It was a desire to grasp the Heart Sutra that led me to seek it out in Sanskrit and examine the individual words as well as to compare 18 translations. I know this may be a quirky and even OCDish approach, but it’s how I think, so yes, if you run across a resource, I may still be here looking.

a priori is a latin term used to differentiate, transcendental knowledge from empirical knowledge. i’d make the most of latin terminology, because translating german philosophy and French for that matter, is notoriously difficult, nuances and subtle inferences, are very much lost in translating. Sometimes it’s better to keep the original.

Standard online dictionaries like

http://dict.leo.org

won’t really help you, especially when you’re dealing with rare expressions. Instead enter the English expression into Wikipedia and check the left navigation part for other languages. Click on “Deutsch” if available. It will take you the German version of the same Wikipedia article. Examples

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transcendence_(philosophy)

http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transzendenz

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Immanence#Immanence_in_Continental_philosophy

http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Immanenz

Thanks, @mammal, but I want the original German words because they take me closest to the author’s mind and intentions. I studied German for four years, have a big German dictionary, and have techniques that I’ve used over the years for getting at the dimensions of a word. I’m not having any trouble with the Latin.

@mattbrowne, that’s a brilliant suggestion! Thank you. I trust that the German versions of those articles would use Kant’s own expressions and not just render the English—? That is, they’re actual articles written in German and not just translations? Do they read as fluent, erudite Deutsch to you?

This is the dictionary I usually use for ordinary quick-reference purposes. Is your link a better resource?

@mammal Beg pardon, but it is not very difficult to translate French philosophy if you have a few years in French and a general background in philosophy. It’s fun, especially when you get to compare notes with other translators and argue about subtleties of the languages. We do, in fact, manage to keep the meaning of the original text intact much of the time – this is, after all, what translators are going for. Old French, like Descartes and Montaigne, can be tricky, but it’s still fun if you like the texts. I find Sartre’s writing to be slippery, but easy. Translating Derrida, of course, is hard.

I do see your point – given my druthers, I do always want a copy of the original next to my translation – but the translating itself can help to shed light on the concepts. It’s not so arbitrary as you seem to think. We don’t just find the closest matching word, we strike a balance between maintaining the original style and restructuring the writing so it reflects the intent of the original.

@wildpotato look at you, you make it sound like child’s play :p. you should be earning yourself a pretty penny ;) ........however i don’t see how you could translate Nietzsche for example, simultaneously retaining the word play he exploits that is specific to German. As for Adorno or Heidegger, or Derrida, well good luck. French philosophy is particular to French consciousness, German to German, Anglo Saxon to Anglo Saxon, which tends toward the meticulously logical approach. i’m not fluently bi-lingual but i believe by speaking a language you adopt the idiosyncracies of the culture who’s language you are speaking . In other words you view the world through the prism of that language. But what i am saying is the original Greek and subsequent Latin terminology is safer. i’d say cogito ergo sum is fairly straightforward, Dasein or différance requires a not inconsiderable volume of text to translate. Some words are untranslatable simply because we don’t think that way,

@Jeruba – What makes http://dict.leo.org superior are two things

1) Better editorial process and higher quality level
2) A vibrant online community improving the dictionary every day

Many years ago I was more active in their community. There are hundreds of excellent bilingual people, many of them are Brits or Americans who live in Germany or Germans who live in the UK or America. There are also teachers and professional translators. If you ask about a special term in most cases you will get several suggestions within the hour. Just try it. Everyone can participate:

http://dict.leo.org/forum/index.php?lang=en

And yes, in Wikipedia all German articles are written by native speakers. Usually they are not translations from other languages.

There seems to be a problem with links containing dashes; the first link is a directory—from there, go to the indicated subdirectory and open glossary.htm:
Burnham’s Kant Glossary (HS689–2/glossary.htm),

Mattey’s Kant Page,

Clarke’s Outline of Critique of Pure Reason,

Immanuel Kant,

Kant Links,

Adventures in Translation,

Correcting.

Thanks, @ratboy, quite fascinating. Even if I’m not finding exactly what I was looking for, I am seeing other very interesting stuff, especially the piece on translating.

@mattbrowne, I’ll use your Wörterbuch from now on.