Blackwell Reference Online

Extract

What has or comes to an end ( Ende ) is endlich (‘finite’). (This also means ‘final, ultimate’ and, as an adverb, ‘finally, at last’.) Endlichkeit is ‘finitude, finiteness’. The finite has a limit or bound (ary), for which German has two words: 1. Grenze (‘limit, boundary, border, extreme point’) generates two verbs: (a) grenzen ( an ), ‘to border (on)’ both literally and figuratively; (b) begrenzen , ‘to bound, limit, form the boundary of’: e.g. a wall limits our view, a narrow-minded or illiberal person is limited ( begrenzt ), the possibilities are unlimited ( unbegrenzt ). 2. Schranke (‘barrier’, and, especially in the plural, Schranken , ‘bounds, limits’, as in ‘to keep within bounds ’) also generates verbs, especially beschränken (‘to confine, limit, restrict, prevent from exceeding a certain limit’); Hegel uses the noun Beschränkung for, e.g., the ‘ restriction ’ or restraint of our impulses by society and the state. The suggestion of restriction is more prominent in Schranke than in Grenze . In non-Hegelian philosophy, Grenze and Schranke are not usually distinguished. Either may be used for, e.g., the limits of human cognition, but Grenze ( n ) is more common. For Kant, a Grenzbegriff (‘limiting or boundary concept’) is a concept that marks the boundary beyond which real concepts cease to be applicable. The concept of a noumenon (‘intelligible’) ... log in or subscribe to read full text