[2nd Paragraph]

The fact that this outline was to appear in print, and thus come before a larger public, provided the occasion to expand on the Notes here and there. Originally intended as brief mentions of related or divergent ideas, further consequences, and the like—matters that would receive their proper explanation in lectures—they were further developed here to clarify the more abstract content of the text at times and to take more extensive account of current ideas prevalent in the present day. Thus, a number of more detailed notes have arisen than the purpose and style of a compendium usually entails. A proper compendium, however, has as its object the circle of a science regarded as complete; what is characteristic of it, with perhaps a minor addition here or there, is primarily the compilation and arrangement of the essential moments of a content that has long been accepted and known, just as that form has its long-established rules and manners. One does not expect this format from a philosophical outline, perhaps because one imagines that what philosophy brings forth is a work as nocturnal as Penelope’s web, which is started anew every day.

Pages: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20

-> back to the original German text