some German words?

[edisonnee]

i reread an essay written by Rene Wellek yesterday and came across some words that I don't know.I guess they are maybe some German words,but I am not sure.the fist one is "Stoffgeschichte" as in the sentence:It is national psychology,sociology,and,as literary study,nothing else but a revival of the old Stoffgeschichte.
the second one is regressus ad infinitum as in "Causal explanation leads only to a regressus ad infinitum".
anybody know these words? :cool:

[Whifflingpin]

"Causal explanation leads only to a regressus ad infinitum".

I don't know the German, but that sentence is easy enough - If you've ever suffered a child asking "Why?" you'll have experienced the infinite regression that happens when you try to answer.

Why a? Because b.
why b? because c.
why c? ...

Of course, half the threads in the Religious Texts forum are in exactly this form and about as meaningful.

.

[mono]

i reread an essay written by Rene Wellek yesterday and came across some words that I don't know.I guess they are maybe some German words,but I am not sure.the fist one is "Stoffgeschichte" as in the sentence:It is national psychology,sociology,and,as literary study,nothing else but a revival of the old Stoffgeschichte.
the second one is regressus ad infinitum as in "Causal explanation leads only to a regressus ad infinitum".
anybody know these words? :cool:
I did some research on the German word 'Stoffgeschichte,' and found that it literally means 'material history.' Though I do not speak, understand, or write in German, I found this from a fairly reliable translator.

[Petrarch's Love]

the second one is regressus ad infinitum as in "Causal explanation leads only to a regressus ad infinitum".
anybody know these words? :cool:

Regressus ad infinitum is not German but Latin. It literally translates, as someone said, to "infinite regression," meaning here, I would imagine, a series of never ending questions, one leading from another.

[subterranean]

I did some research on the German word 'Stoffgeschichte,' and found that it literally means 'material history.'.

Yes, material history. Old material or subject history, a revival of the old ways (dig a little too)

[SleepyWitch]

as a native speaker of German, I tend to go with Subterraneans interpretation
"Old material or subject history, a revival of the old ways" ... Stoffgeschichte sounds like subject history to me... like "the things and topics people have as a rule thought about and the way they've thought about them"... like there's a set way of thinking about things/certain topics people have been harping on about for ages/ certain dimensions that are considered integral parts of a particular field... e.g. if you want to talk about the German school system, there's no way around talking about what "education" should be and why kids should be educated in school rather than by any Tom, Dick and Harry

ah, i just checked in a corpus of German. seems to be an old fashioned word....

:lol: hehe, i hope i've succeeded in confusing you :) sorry, we've got lots of these weird words in German.. people make them up on the spot all the time and nobody knows what they really mean, but they are said to be particularly precise... *cough cough*

[subterranean]

as a native speaker of German, I tend to go with Subterraneans interpretation


A Polish friend's interpretation to be precised, who happen to be fluent in German :)

[SleepyWitch]

wow your friend's German must be excellent if he/she knows ...what was it anyway.. ah, Stoffgeschichte :)
pay him/her my compliments :)