Immanuel Kant’s
Bemerkungen zu den Beobachtungen über das Gefühl des Schönen
und Erhabenen
(Remarks on the Observations on the Feeling of the Beautiful
and Sublime)
This translation is being made free of charge
on the web. It is based on the
German version of Kant’s Bemerkungen zu den Beobachtungen über das Gefühl des
Schönen und Erhabenen, available in volume 20 of the Academy Edition of Kant’s gesammelte Schriften (Vol 20, Ed.
Gerhard Lehmann, Berlin: Walter de Gruyter & Co: 1942) and on the web at http://www.ikp.uni-bonn.de/. An updated and heavily annotated German version of
these Remarks can be found in Kant -Forschungen Band 3: Bemerkungen in den
Beobachtungen über das Gefühl des Schönen und
Erhabenen, Marie
Rischmueller, Hamburg: Felix Meiner Verlag, 1991. Kant’s text
Observations on the Feeling of the
Beautiful and Sublime is available (in German) in volume 2 of the Academy
Edition and at http://www.ikp.uni-bonn.de/. The text has been translated into English
as Observations
on the Feeling of the Beautiful and Sublime
(John T. Goldthwait, Berkeley: University of California Press,
1991).
I strongly welcome any comments or criticism of this translation. THE CURRENT TRANSLATION IS A ROUGH WORKING DRAFT , and I hope to have a more refined translation, along with further annotation and a short introduction, in the near future. Please direct comments and criticism to frierspr@whitman.edu.
I would like to thank Whitman College
and the Perry Endowment for financial support to make this translation possible.
For this version, Kant’s own notes are marked
with * or **. The translator’s
explanatory notes (which are, unfortunately, far from complete!) are marked with
numbers.
[3] The man’s art of appearing inconsiderate and the woman’s of appearing clever.
A man can employ twofold beneficial emotions
on others, respect and love, the former by way of the sublime, the latter by way
of the beautiful. A woman
reconciles both. This composite
feeling is the greatest effect that can ever happen to a human heart. Yet, it {the heart} can be strong enough
for only two dull feelings. If one
of the two should be strong then the other must be weak. One wonders now which of the two one
wants to weaken. Basic principles
are of the greatest sublimity. For
example, self-esteem demands sacrifice.
E.g. a man can be ugly but a witty woman cannot.
The Coquette exceeds the feminine, the rough pedant the masculine A prude is too masculine and a petit
maitre too
feminine
It is ridiculous that through understanding
[Verstand] and large income a man wants to make a woman fall in love with
him
The diversity of women as that of faces. Character parallels between feeling and
ability [Vermögen]
A more tender (dull:) a finer [feinerer]
(coarser) taste
Sympathy for the natural misfortune of others is not necessary, but it certainly is in the injustices suffered by others.
[4] The feeling with which I am dealing is of
the sort that I don’t need to be learned in order to feel
it
The finer [feinere] feeling is that where the
idealistic does not chimerically
contain the noble reason of pleasantness
Voltaire
Why women are embarrassed among one
another
dolce
piccante the pleasant
acidity
Bold
The third gulp Alexander took from the chalice was
sublime although rash
The splendor of a rainbow of the setting
sun
Cato’s death.
Sacrifice
Our current constitution makes it so that
women can also live without men which ruins everything
strange and peculiar the powerful person is
kind. Jonathan
Wild.
The brave youngster.
[5] Women are stronger because they are weak
- - their courage
Menfolk will be casual towards Vapeurs and
hysterical accidents
hat under the arm
Love and respect
Self-revenge is sublime. Certain vices are sublime. Assassination is cowardly and low. The majority never have courage enough
for great vices
Sexual love always presupposes lustful love either
in feeling or memory.
This lustful love is also either crude or
refined [fein]
Tender love has a great mixture of
respect
A woman does not reveal herself easily; for
this reason she doesn’t get drunk Because she is weak, she is
clever
In marriage unity not agreement [Einheit
nicht Einigkeit]
Tender love is also different from the love
of marriage
- - {Latin} What you desire is in
you
do not seek yourself
outside of you Persius
Of moral rebirth
What a true or imagined need supplies is
useful mihi
bonum
The appetites which are necessary for man
through his nature [6] are natural appetites. The man who has no other appetites and
not to a higher degree than through natural necessity is called the Man of
Nature and his ability to be satisfied by less is sufficiency of
nature
The first part of science is [zetetisch] the
other dogmatic
The amount of cognitions [Erkenntnisse] and
other perfections that are required for the satisfaction of nature is the
simplicity of nature. The man in
which as much simplicity is
encountered as the sufficiency of nature is the Man of
Nature.
Whosoever has learned to desire more than
that which is necessary through nature is excessive
[üppig].
The needs of the Man of Nature are
mostly
A reason why the idea [Vorstellung] of death
does not have the effect that it could is because as busy creatures by nature we
are hardly meant to think about it at all
Gaiety is
playful, annoying, and disruptive; but the soul in peace is complaisant and
kind.
Wit belongs to unnecessary things a man who takes this to be very
important in a woman acts just like one who uses his fortune to buy monkeys and
parrots
One of the reasons why excess while in an
unmarried state among the female sex is reprehensible is because of the fact
that [7] when men in this state are excessive they are not thereby preparing
themselves for infidelity in marriage
because their concupiscence has certainly increased but their capacity
[Vermögen] has decreased. On the
other hand, with a woman the desire is uncontrolled, if the concupiscence
increases then she will not be held back by anything therefore becoming in
charge of [präsumirt] lewd hussies- - they will be unfaithful wives but not of
similar men
All purpose of science is either eruditiv (memory) or speculativ (reason). Both must result in making man more
reasonable (more clever, more wise) in the world, which is generally adapted to
human nature, and thus more sufficient.
A tender woman-love [Weiberliebe] has the
characteristic of developing other moral characteristics, but the lustful ones
suppress them.
The moral taste is made such that one regards
science that does not improve as unimportant
The sensitive [Gefühlvoll] soul at rest is
the greatest perfection in discussion, in poetry, {and} society, but it cannot
always be so, instead it is the last goal - - Also even in marriages. Young people surely have much feeling
but little taste the
enthusiastic or zealous style ruins taste.
Distorted taste through novels and gallant flirtations. The healthy, pampered, spoiled
taste.
A
knowledgeable but not clever man {is} not cunning - - a clever but not wise
man. Higher
manners
[8] A woman has a fine taste in choosing that
which can affect the sensations [Empfindungen] of a man and the man has a dull
{taste} therefore it pleases him most when he thinks least about pleasing. On the other hand the woman has a
healthy taste for whoever is concerned with her own
feelings
Bearded women beardless men. Valiant domestic.
The honor of a man consists in the valuation
of his self, of women in the judgment of others
A man marries in accordance with his
judgment, a woman not against the parents’ judgment
A woman opposes injustice with tears, a man
with anger.
Men become sweet towards women if the women
become masculine. Insult to women in the habit of flattering
them.
Softness gets rid of more virtue than
wantonness the dignity of a
housewife.
Vanity of women makes it so that they are
only happy in the glimmer of external masses
The bravery of a woman consists of the
patient bearing of evil for the sake of honor or love. That of a man in the eagerness to
defiantly drive it {evil} away.
[9] Omphale forced Hercules to
spin
Because so many foolish needs make us soft,
the pure unaffected moral drive cannot give us enough powers. Therefore something fantastic must be
formed.
Whence the stoic says: my friend is sick;
what does it matter to me
There is no man who does not feel the heavy
yoke of opinion and no one can do away with it.
The chimera of friendship in our condition
[Zustand] and the fantastical friendship in the ancient {condition}. Aristotle
Cervantes would have done better if instead of making
the fantastical and Romanic passion ridiculous he had made something of
it.
The Romans make noble women fantastical and
common ones absurd. Noble men also
fantastic, common ones lazy
Rousseau’s book serves to improve the
Ancients
In accordance with the simplicity of nature,
a woman cannot do much good without the providing of a man. In the condition of inequality and
wealth, she can immediately
Moral luxury. In sentiments that are
without effect
Inner grief about the inability to help or about the
sacrifice when one helps, even when
one’s own cowardice makes us believe that others suffer much although they can
bear it fairly, brings about pity.
Incidentally this is a great [10] antidote against selfishness. These drives are altogether very cold in
natural humans.
The natural elevations are degradations in
his state [Stand], for example to raise oneself to the position of
craftsman
Relative evaluation is really unnecessary but
in the case [Stand] of inequality and injustice it is good to set oneself against the
pompous high-ups with a certain pride or at the least indifference in order to
disapprove of unimportant things
One must with a certain
wide…
Although a tall man is not a great man for
it, physical greatness does indeed conform to the judgment about moral
things
It is easier to educate a nobleman than an
{ordinary} person. He is a despiser
of the common rabble, for he must call them the industrious and suppressed so that one believes he
has been created to support him.
The scholars in
Among all situations there is nothing less
useful than a scholar as long as he is in natural simplicity and no one more
necessary than the same {the scholar} in a state [Stand] of oppression by means
of suspicion or force
The thoughtfulnesses belong to small and
pretty dispositions
A woman’s affects are just as large as a man’s but they are more superior primarily when it come to respectability, the man is rash. The Chinese and Indians have affects that are just as great [11] as Europeans but they are calmer. A woman is revengeful
The rising sun is just as splendid as the
setting sun but the sight of the former hits upon beautiful, the latter the
tragic and sublime
What a woman does in marriage comes much more
from natural bliss than what the man does at least in our civilized condition
[Zustand]
Because so many unnatural appetites find
themselves in a civilized relationship there also occasionally originates the
cause of virtue and because so much luxuriance is found in enjoyment and
knowledge there originates science.
In a natural condition one can be good without virtue and reasonable
without science
Whether man would have it better in simple
conditions is now difficult to have insight into [einsehen] 1. because he has lost his feeling for
simple pleasures. 2. because he
commonly believes that the corruption that exists in civilized conditions also
exist in conditions of simplicity.
[12] Bliss without taste is based on
innocence and modesty of inclination, with taste it {is based on} the
sentimental [Gefühlvoll] soul at rest [Ruhe]. For this reason it is possible for one
to be happy without society.
Amusements not needs. Rest
after work is pleasant One
must never chase after pleasure.
One must distinguish whether he is in
accordance with the taste of others or he has taste in consideration of
judgments about others. Women know
very well how to evaluate in accordance with the taste of others and for this
reason easily know other minds and have good taste to satisfy them, but they
have a bad taste for others, which is good. For this reason they also all marry the
richest
Tenderness and affection of sensation. Taste chooses in
trifles
Logical egoism {is} skillfulness in taking
standpoints.
Common duties do not require for a motive the
hope of another life but greater sacrifice and self-denial surely have an inner
beauty, yet our feeling of pleasure for them can never be so strong that it
outweighs the annoyance of inconvenience where there is no representation
[Vorstellung] of a future condition of the persistence of such moral beauty and
the bliss that is thereby increased, so that one will find himself more capable
of acting, thus it {the representation} comes in handy.
All pleasures and pains are either physical
or ideal. As for the
latter
[13] A woman gets offended through crudeness
or oppressed where no responsibility but only threat can help. She uses her touching weapon of tears of
melancholy reluctance and complaints, but she endures the evil anyhow before she
ever returns the injustice. See
here the courage of woman. The man
gets angry that one might be so bold to offend him; he returns force with force,
frightens, and lets the insulter feel the consequences of his injustice. See here the courage of man. It is not necessary that the man be
indignant about the evil of illusion, he can despise it in a masculine way. Yet he will be as truly infuriated about
this evil as about true insults if it befalls a woman.
A woman never uses the scolding of reproaches
as the external weapons of her anger against a woman but against a man, except
by means of the threats against another man
When women squabble or fight the men laugh
about it but not the other way around
Duels primarily have their basis in nature
for the sake of women.
[14] In the present condition a man can use
no other means against injustice than a woman can, that is, authority is
arranged not in accordance with the order of nature, but instead the civil
constitution
Rousseau.
Proceeds synthetically and starts from natural humans, I proceed
analytically and start from civilized humans
The country life delights everyone primarily the shepherd’s life and indeed the civilized person uses up boredom in it
The heart of man may be constituted as it
likes, so the question is simply whether the state of nature or civilization
develops more actual sin and skill in it {the heart}. It can subdue moral evil so much that
merely an amount of great purity appears in action but never to a noticeable
degree of positive vice (whoever is not so saintly is for that reason not
vicious) on the other hand, this can develop even so that it becomes
detestation. The simple person has
little temptation to become vicious.
Merely [15] luxury [Üppigkeit] accounts for great provocations and the
cultur of moral feelings [Empfindungen] and
understanding will never hold itself back if the taste for luxury is already
great
Piety is the means of complementi of the moral goodness to holiness. Therefore the question is not in the
relation of a person to another. We cannot naturally be saintly and we
lost this through original sin, but we can be completely morally
good.
Is it not enough for us that a man never lies
if he has a secret inclination which, were it put in the situation, would
develop into lying?
We surely ask whether a man undertakes his
actions of honesty, of fidelity, etc. out of consideration for a divine
obligation if he only does them, although these actions are condemnable before
God insofar as they do not arise through this
{consideration}
In order to prove that the man of nature is
corrupt one appeals to the civilized condition. One ought to appeal to the
natural.
Actions of justice are those which when
neglected by another will naturally move us to hate. Actions of love when neglected will be
no reason for love of others towards
us.
Because the basic characteristics of women are used up in the research of the man [16] and his inclinations also easily create illusion [Blendwerk], they {women} are made to rule and govern also everything in nations that have taste
There is a perfect world (the moral) in accordance with the order of nature, and we ask ourselves about this one to the same extent that we do about the supernatural.
Virtuous people see the rank of others with
indifference although when it relates to themselves, with
consideration
One can either confine his luxuriant impulses
or, by maintaining them, discover remedies against their diseases. To the latter belong science and respect
for life for the sake of the nearness of death and solace for the
future
Boredom is a type of longing for an ideal
pleasure
The holy word affects more improvement if
supernatural powers accompany it.
The good, moral upbringing {has more effect} if everything should happen
purely in accordance with the order of nature
[17] I admit that through the latter we
cannot bring forth saintliness, which is justified, but we can bring about a
moral goodness coram foro
humano, and this is promotable
for the former.
Just as little as one can say that nature has
implanted in us an immediate inclination for acquiring (the stingy greediness)
so little can one say it has given us a immediate drive to honor. Both develop and both are useful in
general luxury [Üppigkeit] but here they let themselves be excluded: just as
nature brings about healing through hard work, it also creates remedies within
its injuries
The difference [Verschiedenheit] of position
makes it so that, as rarely as one puts himself in the place of a subservient
horse in order to introduce himself to his wretched feed, just as rarely does
one put himself in the place of wretchedness in order to understand
it.
The provisions [Vorschriften] of the blissful
life can be twofold:
1.
That one
reveals how, after all the already acquired inclinations of honor and of luxury,
one can maintain his purpose and at the same time prevent the grief that
originates in ideas like that of future life, the nothingness of this life,
etc.
2.
Or that
one attempts to bring the inclinations themselves to
moderation
The stoic their mistake that they, through
virtue, search for merely a counterweight to the pain of luxury. Antisthenes’s school tried to eradicate luxury
itself.
The Stoic teaches of anger out of respect for others.
The current moralists presuppose much as evil [Übel] and want to
teach to overcome it and many temptations for evils [Bösen] and write motives
for overcoming them. The
Rousseauian method teaches to regard the former as
not evil and the latter, then, as no temptation.
[18] There is no one more massive in
enjoyment than a poor person. The
poor greediness comes from an eager desire for all kinds of pleasure to which
there is no actual, but only a chimerical, inclination in the poor person
because from hearsay he regards it as a great good even if he himself is already
moderate. This is bold
poverty. The cowardly
poverty.
The threat of eternal punishment cannot be
the direct [unmittelbare] foundation of morally good actions, but certainly a
strong counterweight against the impulses to evil ones so that the immediate
[unmittelbare] sensation of morality does not become
outweighed.
There is no immediate [unmittelbare]
inclination to morally evil actions but certainly an immediate {inclination} to
good ones
This idealistic feeling sees life in dead
matter or imagines seeing it. Trees
drink from the neighboring brook.
The zephyr whispers of loved ones.
Clouds cry on a melancholy day.
Cliffs threaten like giants.
Solitude is inhabited by dreamy shadows and the deathly silence of graves
by fantastical ones. This is where
the pictures and the picturesque spirit comes from.
[19] Philosophical eyes are microscopic. Their view is exact but small and their
intention is truth. The sensible
[sinnliche] view is bold and provides fanciful excess that is moving although
only it will only be encountered in the imagination.
Beautiful and sublime are not the same. The former swells the heart and makes
the attention fixed and tense thereby tiring it. The latter lets the heart melt in a kind
of softish sensation and, as it leaves the nerves behind here, the feeling
becomes a gentler emotion which, if it goes too far, transforms into feebleness,
boredom, and disgust
The good-natured and well-mannered
[wohlgesittete] man are quite different.
The first may not have drives that have been turned tame because they are
natural and good. The
representation [Vorstellung] of higher natures. If he thinks about it perhaps he will
say he is in another life. One must
be good and expect the rest. The
second is 1. only civilized [gesittet] 2. Well mannered. [wohlgesittet] In the former case he has many
fantastical friends whose any idea that cannot be intuitive he must oppose in
order to maintain himself well. The
second one is a civilized [gesitteter] man who will extend his morality
[Sittlichkeit] over the simplicity of nature until it expands to the object for
which he only wishes and believes
This natural morality [Sittlichkeit] must
also be the touchstone of all religions.
Because if it is uncertain whether people in other religions can become
blessed and whether they cannot restore the torments of this world to bliss in
the next one, then it is certain that I should not follow them. This last one would not be the case if
the natural sensation were not sufficient for exercising all duties of this
life.
[20] As the Portuguese
Celebes discovered, the
inhabitants understood the correctness of their religion, but sent to
Malacca for Don Pedro as often as to Achin for the queen. {They} got double the priests
and…
Everyone who’s a coward lies but not vice
versa.
What makes one weak brings about lying. The foolish lust for honor and shame
that
Shame and modesty are different. The former is a betrayal of a secret
through the natural flow of blood.
The latter is a means of concealing a secret for the sake of vanity, in
other words a sexual excitement
It is far more dangerous to be with free and
greedy people than with the subjects of a monarch in war. Use those who have vanity from
this.
[21] I will say of everything where there are
seldom exceptions. For in
accordance with the rule of prudence, that which occurs so seldom that one
regards it as a stroke of luck {can be said to} never happen, and that {is said
to} be generally in accordance with the rule of prudence where any cases that
one can seek of the contrary accord with no rule. I speak of taste, I take then my own
judgment so that it is generally true in accordance with the rule of taste
(aesthetic) whether or not it is also exactly in accordance with the rule of
measured reason (logic) {or is} only valid on its own
Where does it come from that our society
[Gesellschaft] would be quite unadorned were it not for the women, for that was
certainly not the case with the Greek or the Romans. Back then one spoke of virtue and
fatherland, now this is an empty matter whose position can be taken up at the
very most with false devotion.
Jokes have no correct life among unsophisticated men and also become
uncivilized. We are mushy and
feminine and must [22] be among women.
Primarily most men are feminine or common and so even worse than women in
conversation
A heart expanded through sensibility prepares
itself for longing and will finally be used up from the sensations of all the
things of life; for this reason it sighs for something that is outside its
circle, and as true as its devotion is to itself, just as fantastical is it with
respect to most people because they are themselves chimerical, and {it} comes
about that they offer their love {and} their sincerity only with respect to God
and are cold with respect to the former [love] while misplaced with respect to
other [sincerity] because one can be more easily deceived concerning the former
than the latter
Because one can make for himself a concept of
higher moral characteristics, sacrifice for the common good, everlasting
devotion, fulfillment of marital intentions without sensual pleasure, immediate
[unmittelbare] inclination to science without honor, one imagines these all to
be suitable for the state of humanity and finds the situation that one sees to
be corrupted. They are the same
eager desires [Begierden], {they are} fantastical and even develop from the
sources, just like the general corruption.
Even these shortcomings become no more blameworthy when regarded in
consideration of humanity when the remaining corruption is raised
up
Whole nations can even deliver the example of
a human being. One never finds
great virtues where great they are not also combined with great excess, like
with the English, Canadian savages.
What is the cause{?}
The French are more proper and also all the sublimity of virtue is
missing.
The place [Stelle] of mankind in the order of
created being [Wesen]
[23] All devotion that is natural has only
one use - - if it is the result of a good moralitat.
Under the same {category} is also taken natural devotion that is related
to a book. For this reason the
spiritual teachers correctly say that it [devotion] does no good except where it
has been affected by the spirit of God, whereupon here it is intuition,
otherwise it is very enjoined to self-deception.
The reason why married people are so
cold-minded is this: because both members have so many external, chimerical
bonds of decorum, of grace, and if one or the other part depends strongly on an
opinion, he becomes indifferent towards the opinion of the other. From this arises contempt, finally
hate. For this reason, in relation
to the roman love it is only the characteristic of a
hero. Coquette.
That the doctrine of virtue consists of
teaching piety makes a whole from a part, because piety is only a type of
virtue.
It seems to us from now on that the human race has almost no value if it contains no great artist and scholar, therefore [24] the country people, the farmers, appear to be nothing to themselves and only as some kind of support for the former. The injustice of this judgment already shows that it is false. That is to say, one feels that if he had extended his inclinations, he may do what he wants, {that} life would be nothing, and that the extension of these inclinations is therefore injurious.
There is a great difference {between}
overcoming one’s inclinations and eradicating them, that is to say, making it so
that one loses them, this is again different from restraining inclinations,
namely, making sure no one gets them.
The former is necessary for older people and the latter for younger
ones.
There is a great difference between a good
human and a good, rational being.
As the latter is perfect, it has no bounds but finitude, the former has
many bounds.
It belongs to a great art to prevent children
from lying. For, since they are far
too wanton and far too weak to tolerate negative answers or punishments, they
have a very strong incitement to lie, as old people never do. Primarily, since they can provide
nothing for themselves like grownups can, but instead everything depends on the
way in which they represent things according to the inclinations that they
notice in others. Thus, one must
only punish them for things that they cannot deny and not grant them things on
spurious grounds.
By all means, if one wants to mould morality,
one must not bring up motives that do not lead to morally good actions, e.g.,
punishment, reward. For this reason
one must also immediately portray lying as repulsive, as it is in fact, and
never subordinate it to any other rule of morality, for example, duty towards
others.
(One has no duties towards oneself, however
one has absolute [25] duties, that is, in and for itself an
action is good. It is also
nonsensical that we should depend on ourselves in our
morality)
In medicine one says that the doctor is the servant of
nature: it works just the same in morality. Just hold off the external evil, nature
will already take the right course
If the doctor said that nature in itself is
ruined, by what means does he want to improve it. Just so morality
A man does not take more of a share in the
luck or misfortune of others than what makes him feel contented. If it happens that he is contented with
very little, then it will produce kind people; otherwise it is for
nothing.
General human love has something high and
noble in itself, yet with humans it is chimerical. When one performs it {general human
love}, one is accustomed to deceive himself with longing and idle wishes. As long as one is so very dependent on
things, one cannot participate in the happiness of others.
[26] The simple man has a feeling
[Empfindung] of what is right early on, but very late or never at all does he
have a concept of it. That feeling
must become developed long before the concept. If one teaches him early on to develop
by rules he will never feel {it}
It is difficult, after the inclinations have
developed, to imagine [sich vorstellen] good and evil in other circumstances
[Verhältnissen]. Because I will
waste away a long while without an eternal pleasure, I imagine this for myself,
also of the Swiss man, who grazes his cows in the mountains. And this man {the Swiss one} cannot
understand how a man who has had enough can want even more. One can hardly understand [begreifen]
how, in such a lowly state, this lowliness does not fill one up with pains. On the other hand, when the rest of men
are also stuck with the evil of illusion, some cannot understand how they could
have gotten this illusion. The
noble man imagines that the evil of the contempt of stolen splendor that a
citizen has can be crushed, and the latter [the citizen] does not understand how
he [the noble man] could become used to [27] counting certain delights among his
needs.
A ruler that gave nobility wanted to issue
something that certain people could serve instead of everything else
superfluous. Yet they have a tidbit
of nobility. Let the rest of the
mob have the money.
Can anything be more perverse than the
children who have hardly stepped into this world before being talked into
something.
They also tire of others. One does not listen long to precocious
talk. A person who never neglects
himself becomes troublesome. Too
much attentiveness to oneself looks meticulous.
Like a fruit when it is ripe enough breaks
away from the tree, and approaches the earth to let its own seeds take root, so
the mature person also breaks away from his parents, plants himself, and becomes
the roots of a new race
[28] A man must depend on no one else so
that the wife depends entirely on him.
It must be asked how far the inner moral
grounds [Gründe] can carry [bringen] a person. Perhaps they will carry him far enough
that he is secured in a position of freedom without great temptations, but if
other injustices or the coercion of illusion forces him, then this inner
morality does not have power enough.
He must have religion and be encouraged by means of the reward of a
future life and human nature is not capable of an immediate moral purity. But if supernatural wisdom produces
[wirken] purity in him, future rewards will no longer have the quality of
motives
This is the difference between false and
healthy morality: the former seeks only for antidotes for evil, while the latter
is concerned that the cause of evil is not there at all
The appearance if it announces sublimity is
the gleam, if it announces beauty it is the pretty or also the ornamentation of
finery if it is contrived
Among all types of finery is also
morality. Sublimity of position
consists of the fact that he deals with much worth the beautiful is here called the
suitable
The reason why those of the nobility commonly
pay so poorly
It is a great shame for a genius when
criticism comes before art. When in
a nation it {criticism} blinds before a standard is set and they have revealed
their own talents.
[29] Sublime attitude which overlooks
trivialities and notices the good among deficiencies.
Tobacco
It is unnatural that a person pass most of
his life to teach a child as it should someday live itself. Every private tutor like Jean
Jacques is in this way
artificial. In simple conditions a
child would be afforded very little service; as soon as he has a bit of strength
he would carry out small, useful adult activities, like with a farmer or
craftsman, and would gradually learn the rest. Meanwhile, it is suitable that a person
spend his life teaching so many others how to live that, on the contrary,
sacrificing his own is not to be regarded.
Schools are necessary for that.
In order for them to become possible, one must raise [erziehen]
Emile. One wishes that Rousseau had shown how schools could originate out of
this.
Preachers in the country could begin to do
this with their own children and their neighbors
Taste is not attached to our needs. A man must already be civilized if he
wants to chose a wife in accordance with taste.
[30] Be not very refined [fein], because then
only small traits will be noticed, substantial traits [Grossen] will only be
apparent to simple and coarse eyes.
It is a discomfort to the understanding to
have taste. I must read Rousseau
until the beauty of expression no longer interferes with me and then I can
examine him with reason for the first time
Great people only glimmer in the
distance that a ruler loses
it in front of his valet comes from the fact that no man is
great
Something that is again a great impediment to
the doctrine of eternal bliss and allows one to suppose that it {the doctrine}
is not appropriate for our situation, is that those who believe it become
thereby no less passionate about the bliss in this life, which must happen if
our determination to act for a great cause breaks.
If I want to put myself into a great although
not complete independence [31] from people then I must be able to be poor
without feeling it and slightly obliged without respecting it. Yet, if I were a rich man, in my
enjoyment, I would primarily bring in freedom from things and people. I would not overburden myself with
things like guests, horses, or subjects from whose loss I must be secured. I would not have any jewels because I
can lose them, etc. I would arrange
myself according to the delusions of another so that he doesn’t actually harm
me, for example, reduce my acquaintance but not so that it makes me
comfortable.
How freedom in actual understanding (the
moral and not the metaphysical) is the topmost principium of all virtue and also all
bliss
It is necessary to intuit [einsehen] how late the art of daintiness and civilized disposition came about and how they are never in their own area of the world (e.g. where there are no pets) so that one distinguishes between what is foreign and accidental to nature and what is natural to it. If one considers the bliss of the savage it is not in order to turn back to the forest, but instead in order to see what one has lost, by making gains elsewhere. Thereby one does not paste enjoyment and the employment of sociable luxury together with unfortunate and unnatural inclinations, and {one} remains a civilized person of nature. That consideration serves the standard. Because nature never created a person into a citizen and his inclinations, his endeavors are aimed merely at the simple state [Zustand] of life.
It appears that the primary vocation
[Hauptbestimmung] of the majority of other creatures is that they live and that
their kind lives
If I assume this of human beings, then I must
not despise the lowliest savage
[32] How, out of luxury, simple [Bürgerlich] religion and also the
force of religion (at the very least every new transformation) become
necessary
Pure, natural religion does not at all suit a
country [Staat], and skepticism still less.
Anger is a good natured feeling [Empfindung]
of weak people. An inclination to
suppress it brings about unforgiving hate.
Women, men of the cloth. One
does not always hate those at which one is angry. Good-naturedness [Gutartigkeit] of
people who get angry. Feigned
modesty conceals anger and makes false friends
For such a weak creature as man, the partly
necessary partly voluntary ignorance of future things is very
suitable
I can never convince another except through
his own thoughts. I must therefore
assume that the other has a good and correct understanding [Verstand], otherwise
it is futile to hope that he will be capable of [33] being won over by my
reasons. I cannot even move someone
morally except through his own sentiments; consequently, I must assume that the
other has a certain goodness [Bonitaet] of the heart, or else he will never feel
abhorrence from my portrayal of vice or motives from my praises of virtue in
himself. Because it would be rather
impossible that some morally correct feeling would be in him or that he
could suspect [vermuten] that his feeling was in harmony with that of the entire
human race, if his evil were really and truly evil, then I must grant to him the
partial goodness of it and the slippery resemblance of innocence and portray the
crime as illusory in itself.
Greek profile A thick body - - great tallness - - wide
shoulders
The chief reason to create is because it is
good. A consequence of this is
that, because God, with his power and great knowledge, finds himself to be good,
he also finds everything good that is possible to actualize.
[34] Secondly, he has a liking for everything that is good, but mostly
whatever aims at the greatest good.
The first is good as a result, the second as a
reason
Because revenge assumes that people who hate
each other stay close, failing which, if one can withdraw himself when he wants,
the reason to take revenge falls away, so that it {revenge] cannot exist in
nature because it {nature} does not assume that people will be confined near
each other. But anger is a very
necessary characteristic and suitable to a man, that is to say, if it is not
passion (which is different from an affect), {and} is certainly found in
nature
One cannot imagine of convenience what he has
not required, just as the Carib detested salt, because he was not used to
it.
Agefilaus and the Persian satrap despised
each other, the former said I know the Persian sensual pleasure but you know
nothing of mine. He was
wrong
The goods of weak [Weichlich] luxuriance and
of delusion - - the latter accrue from the comparative manner of evaluation in
science, in honor, etc.
Christianity says that one should not attach
his heart to temporal things, beneath this it is also understood that he should
prevent, early on, that he acquires any such dependence. Still lastly, to nurture inclinations
and then expect supernatural assistance to govern them, that is to tempt
God.
Stages freedom, equality, honor. (The delusion). Precaution henceforth loses him his
entire life.
[35] Two touchstones for the difference of
the natural from the unnatural: 1. Whether it is suitable to something one
cannot change 2. Whether it can be common to all people or to a few with the
oppression of the rest
A certain great monarch of the North
civilized, as it is called, his nation, If God wanted, he would have brought
morals to it, but then everything he did was political welfare and moral
ruins
I can make no one better than the remaining
good that is in him, I can make no one more prudent [klüger] than the prudence
[Klügheit] remaining in him
Vicious people can be considered with
affability because vice comes to them very much externally through our ruined
constitution
From the feeling of equality comes the idea
of justice {which is} as much constrained as coerced. The former is duty towards others, the
latter is the sensed duty of others towards me.
[36] So that this has a standard gauge in
understanding, we are able to put ourselves in the place of another in our
thought and, so that it does not lack motives, we are moved through sympathy by the misfortune and distress of others
just as by our own.
This duty will be recognized as something
whose lack in another will let me consider him to be my enemy and make me hate
him. Nothing stirs something up
more than injustice, all other evils that we endure are nothing in
comparison. Duty concerns only the
necessary self-preservation in so far as it is preservation of the kind,
everything remaining is favor and goodwill [Gewogenheit].
Still, I will also hate anyone who sees me
struggling in a pit and cold-heartedly passes over it.
Kindnesses find themselves only through inequality. For I understand in kindness a readiness to create good, especially in those cases where the general, natural sympathy would not be a sufficient reason for it. Now it is not simple and natural even to sacrifice so much convenience as I show to another because one person is worth as much as another. So if I should be ready and willing for it, I must judge myself more harshly [stärker] with respect to discomforts than another, I must consider it a great evil from which I spare another and a small one that I suffer myself. A man would despise another if he showed such kindnesses towards him.
The first inequality is of a man and child and of a man and women. To a certain extent, he considers it a duty since he is strong and they are weak to sacrifice something to them.
Apparent nobleness is good behavior. Esteem The apparent splendor {is} the luster. The apparent beautiful {is} the ornamented
[37] The beautiful is either charming or pretty
The adventurous taste parodies.
Pranks parody Hudibras
comic sublime.
Every unjust valuation that does not belong to the purpose of nature also disturbs the beautiful harmony of nature. Through the fact that the arts and sciences are held to be so important, anyone who does not have them is made disdainful and brings us to injustices that we would not overcome if we were to consider them as more than resembling us.
If something is not suitable to the length of a lifetime, or not to its epochs, or not to a large part of humans, finally, to the extent that it is subjected to chance and is only difficultly possible, it does not belong to the blissfulness and perfection of the human race. [38] How many centuries have passed by before actual sciences existed and how many nations exist in the world that will never have them.
One must not say that nature calls us to the sciences because they have given us skills, for what the air concerns can be purely affected. Because the insidiousness of the sciences has been proven, there is much more to judge: we have a capacity for understanding that goes further than our vocation [Bestimmung] in this life, thus there will be another life. If we try to disentangle this here, we will poorly satisfy our position. A grub that would feel that it ought to become a butterfly.
Scholars believe that everything is for their sake. Noble people also If one has traveled to barren France, then one can find comfort again in the academy of sciences or in the society of good fashion just like one happily gets away from all the beggars in the church-city, in Rome one can delight himself until intoxicated about the splendor of the church and antiquity.
[39] From just the previous reasons one should judge that those who want to know too much prematurely here will thereby be castigated by weakness as punishment. Just as a prematurely clever child either dies or fades and becomes dumb at a young age.
A person may tinker as much as he wants, but he cannot force nature to follow other laws. He himself must either work or others {work} for him, and this work will rob others of so much bliss that he will increase his own beyond the average
If one person wants to enjoy without working, then others will want to work without enjoying
One can promote one’s welfare either by letting desires extend themselves and striving to satisfy them one can promote righteousness if one lets the inclinations of illusion and luxury grow and endeavors to oppose them with moral motives But in both problems there is yet another solution, that is, not to let the inclinations arise. Lastly, one can also promote good conduct by putting aside all immediate moral bonitaet and simply form grounds {from} the orders of a worthwhile and punitive lord.
The evil proper to science for humans is primarily this, that the largest part of them who want to adorn themselves with it not acquire any improvement of the understanding but instead only a perversion [Verkehrtheit] of it, not to mention that it {science} serves the majority only as a tool of vanity. The use for which the sciences have is either luxuriance, e.g. mathematics or the hindrance of evil that it wreaked itself or also a certain decency as an indirect result.
[40] The concepts of civil justice and what is natural and the feeling of duty that comes from it are almost directly opposed.
If I solicit from a rich person who got his fortune by extorting his peasants and I give this to the poor, then I carry out a very noble action in the civil understanding, whereas I only do a common duty in the natural {understanding}.
[41] With general luxury one complains about the divine rule and about the rule of the king. One does not consider that, as concerns the latter, just the same desire for honor and immoderacy that the civilians control can have no other form on the throne than as they have 2 that such civilians cannot otherwise be ruled. The subject wants the master to overcome his inclinations of vanity in order to promote the good of his lands and {he wants} to think that demands of him do not occur in consideration of lowly things even with the law. Are wise people themselves in the first place righteous and moderate these virtues will soon rise to thrones and also make the prince good. See here the weak princes who show kindness and courage in such times, could they practice something completely different as with great injustice towards others because this puts the courage in nothing other than the distribution of robbery that one stole from another. The freedom that a prince gives out to think and write like I am doing now is worth just as much as many privileges of a greater luxury because through that freedom everything of this evil can be improved.
The greatest concern of man is to know how to properly fulfill his place in creation and correctly understand what one must do in order to be a human. If, however, he gets to know pleasures above or below himself that flatter him, but to which he is not organized and which opposes the style of arrangement that is suitable to him by nature, if he gets to know moral characteristics that gleam, then he will disturb the beautiful order of nature himself and only prepare the ruin for others, because he has avoided his post; for, since he does not let himself enjoy that for which he is destined, since he steps out of the circle of humanity, he is nothing and the hole that he makes spreads his own corruption to the neighboring links
[42] Among the harms wreaked by the flood of books that our part of the world is drowned in yearly, is one that has not the slightest bit of real usefulness and that is seen swimming here and back again over the wide ocean of book-scholarliness [Büchergelehrsamkeit] and must share the fate of decrepitude with the residual chaff. The inclination to read much in order to say that one has read. The habit of not lingering long on a book, and
Luxury brings the people in the city together Rousseau wants to bring them to the country
Evil pretty much replaces the developed immoderacy
of man. The desire for freedom and
the exclusive force of a dominator is a great misfortune, but it becomes just as
much an orderly system, in fact, there is actually more order, although less
[43] bliss than in
One of the greatest harms of science is that it takes away so much time that virtue gets neglected in customs; secondly, that they habituate the mind to the sweetness of speculation that good actions stop.
Moral beauty, simplicity, sublimity. Justice - - Righteousness is simple. The passion of the sublime is enthusiasm. Beloved virtuous. Friendship. Beautiful ideal.
The first impression that a reasonable reader, who is not reading for vanity or entertainment, gets from the writings of Mr. J. J. Rousseau is that he encounters an uncommon astuteness of the spirit of a noble flight [Schwung] of genius and a sensitive [gefühlvoll] soul combined to such a high degree as perhaps no writer of any era or nation has possessed. The impression that follows is surprise about strange and absurd opinions that are in such opposition to what is generally passable that one easily gets a suspicion that the author, by virtue of his extraordinary talents, has only proven the [44] magical power of eloquence and wants to make himself the queer fellow who sticks out among all his rivals in wit by way of engaging novelty [neuigkeit].
The third thought, to which one only arrives with difficulty because it only seldom occurs…
One must teach virtue to cherish the common understanding as much for moral as for logical reasons.
I myself am a researcher from inclination. I feel the entire thirst for knowledge and the desirous unrest to proceed further in it or also the happiness with every acquisition. There was a time when I believed that this alone could constitute the honor of mankind and I despised the mob that knew of nothing. Rousseau brought me around. This blinding preference vanished, I learned to honor human beings and I would think myself less useful than the common worker if I did not believe that this consideration of everything else could have worth in establishing the rights of mankind
[45] It is quite ridiculous to say you should love other people, instead one must rather say you have good reason to love the ones near you. This even goes for your enemies.
Virtue is strong, thus whatever disables and makes one soft under pleasures or dependent on delusion is opposed to virtue.
Whatever makes life despicable or entirely abhorred does not lie in nature.