Descripción
First German edition of The Theory of Moral Sentiments. 'Walther Eckstein has brought together evidence of the reception of The Theory of Moral Sentiments (TMS) in Germany. Lessing mentions the book in his celebrated work on aesthetics, Laokoon (1766), quoting a passage, in his own translation, from I.ii.1. Herder makes several references to it, the earliest one being in his aesthetic work, Kritische Wälder (1769). The first German translation was of edition 3 and appeared in 1770. The name of the translator is not stated but he was in fact Christian Günther Rautenberg, who had already translated Lord Kames s Principles of Morality and Natural Religion. It seems that Kant knew and valued TMS, judging from a letter of 1771 written to him by one Markus Herz. A passage in this letter speaks of the Englishman Smith, who, Mr. Friedländer tells me, is your favourite , and then goes on to compare the work of Smith with the first part of Home, Kritik , no doubt meaning Elements of Criticism by Henry Home, Lord Kames. As Eckstein points out, the date of 1771 (too early for the Wealth of Nations and one year after the publication of the first German translation of TMS) and the comparison with Kames show that the writer must have had TMS in mind. The passage also suggests that Herz at least, like Lessing and Herder, was interested in the relevance of TMS to aesthetics. It is unlikely, however, that Kant s own regard for the work will have been thus confined. Eckstein goes on to note that there is a passage in Kant s Reflections on Anthropology where Kant writes of the man who goes to the root of things and who looks at every subject not just from his own point of view but from that of the community and then adds, in brackets, the Impartial Spectator (der unpartheyische Zuschauer)' (Editors' Introduction to Adam Smith, The Theory of Moral Sentiments, eds D.D. Raphael & A.L. Macfie, vol. I of the Glasgow Edition of the Works and Correspondence of Adam Smith, 1982). PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION: 8vo, 576 pp., (492-3 misnumbered 502-3), contemporary brocade paper over boards, a little rubbed, hand-lettered paper spine label, occasional light foxing in upper margins, closed tears to upper margin of H3 and H4, light toning from p. 401 onwards, no stamps or inscriptions, an exceptionally beautiful copy. N° de ref. del artículo ABE-1528277273361
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