English translation of Alexander Gottlieb Baumgarten's "Metaphysics" (from the Latin "Metaphysica")
Baumgarten's Metaphysics has had an incalculable impact upon modern philosophy, not only through his student G.F. Meier, but more profoundly through the work of Immanuel Kant and thus, eventually, G.W.F. Hegel. Together, Courtney Fugate and I are bringing out the first comprehensive translation of this influential text, clearly indicating the German variants and expansions, but using the Latin as the base text. The text also includes all of Kant's elucidations found in his copy of the Metaphysica, and reproduces 3 sets of facing pages with notes in his own hand.
It will be published on Continuum/Bloomsbury in May (London) and July (New York), 2013.
Advance review: “Alexander Gottlieb Baumgarten's Metaphysica was both a refined restatement of the German rationalism of Leibniz and Wolff and an original work of philosophy. Not merely the textbook for Immanuel Kant's lectures on metaphysics and anthropology, it fundamentally shaped Kant's "Critical Philosophy" and through that most of later German philosophy. This lucid translation finally makes Baumgarten's seminal work available in English. Including Kant's annotations in his own copy of the Metaphysica along with an illuminating introduction and extensive notes and glossary, this volume will be indispensable for all future students of Kant and German philosophy.”
---Paul Guyer, Jonathan Nelson Professor of Humanities and Philosophy, Brown University.
Below you will find scans of some of the editions from which we worked.