990117 1843 -Things as they appear and as they are in themselves

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Von: Robert Binkley <rbinkley@julian.uwo.ca>
An: Multiple recipients of list <kant-l@bucknell.edu>
Betreff: RE: Things: as they appear and as they are in themselves
Datum: Sonntag, 17. Januar 1999 18:51

I don't know that we can build too much on the translation of a particular
word. 'Erkennen', after all, covers a fair amount of territory in German
(know, perceive, apprehend, recognize, take cognizance of, know (carnally)
-- according to one dictionary, Cassell,s 1936). As, indeed, does
'recognize' (anerkennen als (by), anerkennen dass (that),; (wieder) kennen;
gru"ssen (in the street, etc.) -- that same dictionary in the other
direction.) Also (Oxford) 1. acknowledge validity or genuiness or character
of claims or existence of, accord notice or consideration to, discover or
realize nature of, treat as, acknowledge for, realize or admit that. 2.
know again, identify as known before.
For that matter, 'know' itself has a certrain spread of meanings. Maybe
what's relevant here is Russell's distinction between knowledge by
acquaintance and knowledge by description. ('Be acquainted' with, after
all, is one of the meanings of 'kennen'.)
Bob Binkley

At 10:23 AM 17/01/99 -0500, you wrote:
>A reminder:
>
>Kant did NOT say that we could never 'know' things as they are in
>themselves; the verb he used was 'erkennen' which, then and now, is the
>German verb for 'to recognise - and, given Kant's concern with judgment
>(REfining the identity of something through predication already identified
>in a preliminary way by the subject), the verb is more exactly apropos
>than even Kant may have gathered.
.. snip ...
>
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