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Subject Area: Philosophy
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TRANSLATOR’S PREFACE TO SECOND EDITION - Friedrich Max Müller, Critique of Pure Reason [1881]

Edition used:

Immanuel Kant’s Critique of Pure Reason. In Commemoration of the Centenary of its First Publication. Translated into English by F. Max Mueller (2nd revised ed.) (New York: Macmillan, 1922).

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TRANSLATOR’S PREFACE TO SECOND EDITION

So much has been done of late towards a critical restoration of the text of Kant’s Critique of Pure Reason that it was impossible to republish my translation without a thorough revision. Scholars who are acquainted with the circumstances under which Kant’s work was originally written and printed will easily understand why the text of his Critique should have required so many corrections and conjectural emendations. Not being able myself to find out all that had been written on this subject in successive editions of Kant’s works and in various articles scattered about in German philosophical journals, I had the good fortune to secure the help of Dr. Erich Adickes, well known by his edition of Kant’s Critique, published in 1889, and now engaged in preparing a new critical text under the auspices of the Royal Academy of Berlin. Dr. Adickes has not only given me the benefit of all the really important various readings and emendations which will form part of his standard edition, but he has also pointed out to me passages in which I seemed to have misapprehended the exact meaning of Kant’s peculiar and often very ambiguous style.

That emendations of Kant’s text are often of great importance for a right understanding of his philosophical arguments can easily be seen from the list given in Dr. Adickes’ edition of Kant’s Critique, pp. iv-vii. Here we find, for instance, such mistakes as:

helfeninstead offehlen
erfolgtinstead ofverfolgt
alleinstead ofallein
Realitätinstead ofIdealität
veränderlichinstead ofteilbar
Einsichtinstead ofEinheit
reineninstead ofkeinen
prioriinstead ofposteriori
einerinstead ofseiner
Anleitunginstead ofAbleitung
Antitheseinstead ofThese
eineinstead ofkeine
phaenomenoninstead ofnooumenon
alleinstead ofals
Ungrundinstead ofUrgrund

More perplexing even than these gross mistakes are smaller inaccuracies, such as ihr instead of sie, sie instead of ihn, den instead of dem, noch instead of nach, which frequently form very serious impediments in the right construction of a sentence.

I cannot conclude this preface without an Ave, pia anima to my departed friend, Professor Ludwig Noiré, who encouraged and helped me when, in commemoration of the centenary of its first publication, I undertook the translation of Kant’s Critique. The Introduction which he contributed, his Sketch of the Development of Philosophy from the Eleatics to Kant, seemed to me indeed the most valuable part of my book, and the most likely to remain as a lasting monument of my friend’s comprehensive knowledge and clear understanding of the historical evolution of philosophy. Though it has been left out in this second edition, I hope it may soon be republished as an independent work.

F. MAX MÜLLER.