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/dt/forsch/kant/aa20/. 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/cgi-bin/Kant/lade.pl?/default.htm. 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