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Trogdach
Gewindevorschub

Glossary entry

German term or phrase:

Eine Religion, die der Vernunft unbedenklich den Krieg ankündigt...

English translation:

a religion which rashly declares war on reason

Added to glossary by Helen Shiner
May 27, 2009 12:40
14 yrs ago
German term

Eine Religion, die der Vernunft unbedenklich den Krieg ankündigt...

German to English Art/Literary Philosophy Immanuel Kant quotation
"Eine Religion, die der Vernunft unbedenklich den Krieg ankündigt, wird es auf die Dauer gegen sie nicht aushalten"

Does anyone know the exact English translation of this? I've been searching, but come up with nothing except my own version:

"A religion that readily fights reason will not last against it in the long run"

Thank you very much
Proposed translations (English)
4 +5 a religion which rashly declares war on reason
4 a religion that unobjectionably declares war against reason...
3 +1 without a second thought
Change log

May 29, 2009 10:42: Helen Shiner Created KOG entry

Proposed translations

+5
7 mins
Selected

a religion which rashly declares war on reason

for a religion http://www.marxists.org/reference/subject/ethics/kant/religi... rashly declares war on reason

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Note added at 9 mins (2009-05-27 12:49:59 GMT)
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This translation seems to appear in various places, including here:

http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=G-rt5EPM0CUC&pg=PA38&lpg=...

so I presume it is the accepted translation, which is not to say that it cannot be improved upon!!

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Note added at 15 mins (2009-05-27 12:55:27 GMT)
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A slightly different wording here, but it may be a slightly different passage:

http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=gAkLAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA122&lpg...

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Note added at 1 day5 hrs (2009-05-28 18:26:25 GMT)
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Sophie - could you clarify, please? I have presumed that you were looking for the 'official' translation when you asked for the 'exact' one, but perhaps that is not the case. Certainly the other respondents have not read it in that light. As I have already said, I wouldn't personally translate the phrase as it appears in these 'official' translations, but if that's what you want...?

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Note added at 1 day22 hrs (2009-05-29 10:43:42 GMT) Post-grading
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Thanks, Sophie
Note from asker:
Helen, sorry it's taken so long to respond. I did indeed mean 'official' translation; my wording was unfortunately very slack in the question. Thank you for your time on this.
Peer comment(s):
agree S.L. (X) : a religion that rashly declares war on reason will not long endure against it (translation under the second link)
6 mins
Thanks, Sofia - yes, I've only answered the phrase as posted.
agree Ulrike Kraemer : with Sofia
23 mins
Yes, that's from the link I provided. Thanks, LittleBalu.
agree Julia Lipeles
35 mins
Thanks, Julia
agree Derek Gill Franßen : =D
1 hr
Thanks, Derek and for the lovely smile!
agree casper (X)
3 hrs
Thanks, casper
neutral YorickJenkins : Wouldn't that be "unbedacht" not "unbedenklich"?
19 hrs
This is not my translation, Yorick. The Asker asked for the official translation. See my comment that it might be improved upon.
Something went wrong...
4 KudoZ points awarded for this answer. Comment: "Thank you again for your efforts. I understand that improvements can be made, but I needed to find the official translation."
10 hrs

a religion that unobjectionably declares war against reason...

unbedenklich = unobjectionably
Example sentence:

A religion that unobjectionably declares war against reason will, in the long run, not be able to stand up against it.

Reference:

http://dict.tu-chemnitz.de/dings.cgi?lang=en&service=deen&opterrors=0&optpro=0&query=unbedenklich&iservice=&comment=&email=

Note from asker:
Yes, that's my fault - I did actually mean 'official'. Sorry for the misunderstanding there.
Peer comment(s):
neutral Helen Shiner : We were asked to find the official translation.//Yes, I've presumed that to be the meaning of 'exact' - what is an 'exact' translation otherwise? There is never one solution only. But hopefully Sophie will clarify this for us.
9 hrs
I must be misunderstanging... they asked for exact, not official. What am I missing?
Something went wrong...
+1
19 hrs

without a second thought

A complete sentence could be: "No religion that declares war on reason without a second thought will hold out against it in the long run."
More traditional style: "No religion declaring war on reason in an ill-considered way will ultimately prevail against it."

"Rash" is normally "unbedacht" in German, not "unbedenklich." If this writer chose "unbedenklich" then presumably to stress not so much that it is in principle foolish/rash to attack reason but that religion will ultimately fail if it does not plan and cosinder well how it will go about attacking reason. In other words, I think the stress here is more on the adverb "unbedenklich" than on the verb "den Krieg erklären" ; otherwise the writer would have written "unbedacht" or "übermutig" instead of "unbedenklich".
Note from asker:
As I've just posted, I was looking for the official translation, but I will send a note to my client just clarifying that there are other (better) suggestions out there.
Peer comment(s):
agree ToCaTranslation : I really like your translation and I agree fully with your analysis of "unbedacht" and "unbedenklich".
9 hrs
Something went wrong...
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