Notes for English translation of Alexander Gottlieb Baumgarten's "Metaphysics" (from the Latin "Metaphysica")

¹See A 843/B 871 ff., 29: 749, 29: 946.

²According to Grimm, this term originated from the mysticism of Jacob Böhme, but only became popular after Kant’s usage. However, before its appearance in Eberhard’s Vorbereitung zur natürlichen Theologie in 1781 (and again in this work), Kant had in fact used it only twice, both times in an unpublished sketch of the Appendix to the Transcendental Analytic. Another possible source of Kant’s usage may be Moses Mendelssohn’s Morning Hours, a work that itself was possibly influenced by Eberhard.

³Kant’s note: “Apparent contradictions in the direction of the world. In the secrets. In the riddles. In the flashes of wit. That become resolved. A book would be shorter etc. etc. In the writing of a great man the contradictions are regarded as apparent.”

⁴Kant’s note: “visible darkness”.

⁵Kant’s note: “pious fraud”.

⁶Kant’s note: “Also tautology”.

⁷Kant’s note: “The real ground of actuality is the efficient cause.”