Critique of Pure Reason (review)

BOOK REVIEWS 115 Immanuel Kant, Critique of Pure Reason, Concise Text, translated with Introduction and Glossary by Wolfgang Schwarz. Aalen: Scientia Verlag Aalen, 1982. Pp. xxxi + 281. DM 98.oo. This new translation of Kant's first Critique, long overdue, is to be warmly welcomed. As its subtitle claims, it presents a truly "new faithful terminologically improved translation." But we are also give a "concised text" seeking to "[exhibit] the structure of Kant's argument in thesis and proof." These two separate projects require separate evaluation. This reviewer has severely criticized what Kant's English translators rendered--as misrepresenting crucial aspects of the Critical philosophy) One should not wonder that 'Continental' and English-language interpretations and criticisms have been at cross-purposes: they argue from seriously divergent texts. That Kemp Smith's, with its misrepresentations of Kantian terms, became the "standard" English version, is something of a philosophic scandal. Schwarz, concerned to save "Kant's careful terminology ," (xvi) has attempted "a faithful transmittal" (xxi). He has succeeded admirably in rendering Kant into readable English that is yet remarkably faithful to the nuances of Kant's German. Schwarz's introductory essay explicates his translational principles and notes some of Kemp Smith's prime errors in conveying Kant's arguments and meanings. This is supplemented by a twenty-page Glossary discussing some 32 key terms (including nine pages on uses of the term transzendental). They note prime instances of Kemp Smith's translational "collapse" into some common English word of German terms Kant rigorously kept apart. Some of these crucial Kantian distinctions which Schwarz distinguishes are: (l) Grundsatz = 'cardinal [or] fundamental proposition' vs. Prinzip = 'principle'; (2) Erkenntnis = 'cognition' vs. Wissen -- 'knowledge'; (3) Grenze = 'limits' vs. Schranken = 'confines'; (4) Gegenstand = 'object as against the cognizing subject' vs. Objekt = 'conceptualized object of thought'; (5) einfach = 'simple' vs. bloss = 'mere'; (6) m6chte = 'should like' vs. k6nnte = 'could.' With explained regret, he retains 'intuition' for Anschauung. He explains the German meaning of i~berhaupt, tells why gleichzeitig must be translated as 'simultaneous' and not 'co-existence'; and, citing the Oxford Dictionary, argues for translating Vorstellung as 'presentation', not 'representation '. This is not all. In the translation itself are other key terms which should have been highlighted in the Glossary--such as 'perdurability' instead of Kemp Smith's 'permanence' as the proper translation of Kant's Beharrlichkeit, immediately clearing the meaning of the First Analogy. To a generation reared on Kemp Smith's translation, Schwarz's may be a revelation . However one may quibble with an occasional English rendering, each is yet L Some of my criticisms, and their bearing on the understanding of Kant, can be seen in two papers: (1) "The Question of Noumenal Time," Man And World, lo, 4 (1977): 411-34 and (2) "Two Kinds of Transcendental Objectivity: Their Differentiation," in Mohanty and Shahan, eds. Essayson Kant's Critique ofPure Reason (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1982), 25178 . 116 JOURNAL OF THE HISTORY OF PHILOSOPHY 23: ~ JANUARY ~985 precisely tied to its German counterpart. This work sets a new high standard for any subsequent translation of Kant into English. The matter of the "concise" text is another question. Schwarz states that this is not a "routine" abridgement, not "re-done" or "edited" Kant: "Every word.., has its equivalent in the original" (xxi). Each of the 1~o subdivisions of the original text is presented, even if sometimes bridging over several sentences but "never in formally proving sections" (xxiii); his aim has been to keep every essential link of Kant's argument, so that the reader can view the whole Kant presented. As claimed, he has provided a generally "reliable pr6cis in English" of the entire first Critique with "all its elements, key positions, principles, and their proofs.., in Kantian formulations" (xxx). Notwithstanding unhappiness with a 'concising' of the Kantian text, Schwarz has succeeded in conveying the steps and sweep of Kant's argument. Were the publisher to offer this volume in a reasonably-priced paperback, I would be tempted to try it with an undergraduate class (and to recommend it to graduate students, as a key to translational precision and as providing a necessary overview of the entire work). But, I would surely...