Kant

Herder

Herder’s Notes
(Varia)

[ Introduction ] [ Metaphysics ] [ Moral Phil. ] [ Physical Geogr. ] [ Logic ] [ Physics ] [ Math. ] [ Varia ]

How to Use these Pages     ➝ to the transcripts 

Manuscripts: There are six manuscripts, three of which are bound notebooks: [XXV.38], [XXV.46a], [XX.188]. These are accessed by clicking on the red-links in the light yellow window at the top of the page.

Explanatory Notes / Textual Notes: There are two windows with notes: explanatory and textual. The text in those windows on this page explains what you will find in them.

The very few additional texts from Herder’s Nachlaß included on this website are either related in content to material in his notes from Kant’s lectures (as indicated below in the “List of Manuscripts”), or else might be useful in understanding Herder’s years in Königsberg. Those previously published in Irmscher (1964) or a volume of the Academy edition of Kant’s writings – viz. the texts from [XXV.38], [XXV.46a], [XX.188] – are all published under “Varia” in the print edition. The remainder are available only here, on the website.

Several manuscript pages from Herder’s “Blue Notebook” (Herder Nachlaß, XX.188) that were included in Irmscher’s 1964 transcription of Herder’s notes from Kant’s lectures (1964, 51-56, 65-66) are most likely not lecture notes at all, much less from Kant’s lectures. These extraneous texts were subsequently included in Lehmann’s 1968 edition (AA 28: 143-44, 155-58) and still more were added in the 1970 edition (AA 28: 935-46, 951-61), along with two short manuscripts (AA 28: 53-55, 143-44) and Herder’s student “Essay on Being” (AA 28: 951-61). All this material has been placed in an appendix – “Transcriptions of Varia” – at the end of the print volume, with the exception of Herder’s essay, which is readily available elsewhere (e.g., FHA, 1: 9-21) and therefore excluded altogether.

We include these otherwise extraneous texts because their publication in the Academy edition resulted in a history of use that needs to be acknowledged and accommodated. Their content is clearly relevant to the topics covered in Herder’s lecture notes, but there is no compelling reason to believe that the passages are in any direct way related to Kant’s lectures.

List of Manuscripts [top]

At the Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin – Preußischer Kulturbesitz, Nachlass Johann Gottfried Herder:

XX.188 (8°, 10 x 17 cm): 4 pp. Text in ink. [XX.188(A)] (introductory notes to metaphysics)

XX.188 (8°, 10 x 17 cm): 15 pp. Text in ink. [XX.188(B)] (introductory notes to physics)

XXV.38 (8°, 10 x 17.5 cm): 1 p. Text in ink. [XXV.38] (empirical psychology)

XXV.44a (4°, 16.5 x 20.5 cm): 1 p. Text in ink. [XXV.44a] (logic)

XXV.46a (8°): 1 p. Text in ink [XXV46a(A)] (astronomy)

XXV.46a (8°, 10.5 x 17.5 cm): 2 pp. Text in ink. [XXV.46a(B)] (reading notes on Kant’s New Elucidation)

XXVI.5 (4°, (17.5 x 20 cm): 4 pp. Text in ink. [XXVI.5] (schedule, readings)

XXVIII.2 (8°, 10 x 15.5 cm): 2 pp. Text in ink. [XXVIII.2] (schedule, readings)