"Basic Concepts" [Grundbegriffe]—of what? The title of this lecture does not say. Hence what is supposed to be grasped by these concepts remains unclear. "Concepts" are said to be representations [Vorstellungen] in which we bring before ourselves an object or entire regions of objects in general. "Basic Concepts" [Grundbegriffe], then, are more general representations of the most possibly encompassing regions. Such regions are nature, history, "the" state, "the" law, humanity, animal, or whatever else. However, in the lecture's title there is no talk of the basic concepts of nature, of art, and other regions. The title does not specify anything of the kind for which the "Basic Concepts" are supposed to be such basic concepts, whether for the investigation of art history or jurisprudence, for chemistry or mechanical engineering, or for any other "subject area" or field of human practice. Perhaps the unsupplemented title "Basic Concepts" means this: that it does not treat of particular regions of beings, nor of the corresponding sciences that investigate them individually.
Since, however, the lecture is listed under the "rubric" "philosophy," 'naturally' the basic concepts "of philosophy" are meant. But if these were