Critique of Judgement (Bernard Translation)

...more and more captivated by those technicalities and refined distinctions which discourage so many from studying the Critical Philosophy The "Critical Philosophy" refers to the philosophical system developed by Immanuel Kant, primarily contained in his three "Critiques." even in its earlier sections. These “symmetrical architectonic amusements,” original: "symmetrical architectonic amusements"—this was Schopenhauer's mocking way of describing Kant's habit of forcing his ideas into rigid, complex, and highly structured systems. as Schopenhauer called them, weigh down every page of Kant’s later writings, and they are a constant source of frustration to his unfortunate translator. For, as every translator knows, no single word in one language exactly matches any single word in another; and yet if Kant’s distinctions are to be preserved, it is necessary to select English equivalents for German technical terms with a certain degree of arbitrariness and retain them throughout the work. Examples of this will be provided later on; I only remark here on the fact that Kant’s persistent flaw of over-technicality is especially obvious in this treatise.

Another fault—a long-standing habit of Kant’s—which becomes apparent after reading even a few pages, is that he very frequently repeats the same thought in only slightly varied language. Arguments are repeated over and over again until they become quite tedious; and then, just when the reader’s attention has faded and he is glancing quickly down the page, some important new point is introduced without any emphasis, as if the author were actually anxious to keep his meaning to himself at any cost. A book written in such a fashion rarely attracts a wide circle of readers. And yet, not only did Goethe think highly of it, but it received a large amount of attention in France as well as in Germany upon its first appearance. Originally published in Berlin in