Wertgefühle

05:37 Jun 13, 2010 

Jim and others who took part in this discussion, you have contributed a lot to our understanding of this term, so thanks to all of you for taking the trouble to post your thoughts.

20:07 Jun 11, 2010 

...after cheating a bit, I googled this passage and found this:

Dem gegenüber muss daran festgehalten werden, dass sich alles Interesse und Beurteilen, alle Wertbestimmung des Menschen auf das Einzelne und das Einmalige bezieht. Bedenken wir nur wie schnell sich unser Gefühl abstumpft, sobald sich sein Gegenstand vervielfältigt oder als ein Fall unter tausend gleichartigen erweist. «Sie ist die erste nicht» - heisst es an einer der grausamsten Stellen des Faust. In der Einmaligkeit, der Unvergleichlichkeit des Gegenstandes wurzeln alle unsere Wertgefühle.

In other words, a "Gegenstand" here is indeed the object of feeling.

The question remains whether Wertgefühl is subjective ( = "sense of dignity") or objective ("perceived value" of something). Here I tend toward the latter. To reinforce this, I'd say look again at the last part of that first sentence:
"...dass sich alles Interesse und Beurteilen, alle Wertbestimmung des Menschen auf das Einzelne und das Einmalige bezieht". In other words, the focus is on something *outside* (Gegenstand) the person doing the feeling (the subject).

19:48 Jun 11, 2010 

and Vera

18:58 Jun 11, 2010 

Wertgefűhle (als philosoph. Begriff) sind Äußerungen eines (persönlichen, individuellen) Wertbewusstseins. (vgl. Nicolai Hartmann). Ich denke, dass „perceived“ hier etwas in die Irre fűhrt

http://shortify.com/10387

16:09 Jun 11, 2010 

this is definitely talking about "subject", or "issues". I would also propose "uniqueness" for Einmaligkeit, and wonder (this depends clearly on further context) if "Wertgefühle" is actually referring to "self worth" here...

15:35 Jun 11, 2010 

Is the translator a German native speaker? If so, I'd suggest you gently point out that translations are best done by native speakers into their own language and perhaps offer to help with the translation rather than proof reading. It would make life easier for you, too. Untangling a translation full of false friends and Germanisms (Denglish) can be harder than re-doing it from scratch, after all, especially when it comes to syntax, tenses etc. (even more than punctuation).

15:30 Jun 11, 2010 

...since this text is apparently discussing events within history or culture (probably the former), I'd consider "subject" or "issue" for Gegenstand here. (I'd also be a little concerned that the translator is simply mechanically aping the German punctuation, but we'd have to see more of this translation. In this case though, "and" (minus the 2nd "the") would probably work better than a comma.)