Sticking to English, French, and German, which language has the best poetry, the best philosophy, and the best novels?
>>8033327
English by a wide margin.
English
t. Frenchman
German for all three
>>8033333
I won't comment on your {deleted} because that's illegal.
>>8033327
best philosophy of those is German.
>>8033327
I'd say philosophy is German
Novels are pretty close between German and French
Poetry is probably English but French isnt too far behind
>>8033327
Germany annihilates everyone wrt philosophy.
>>8033333
Name the English equivalents of Leibniz, Schopenhauer, Kant, Hegel, Nietzsche, Wittgenstein and Heidegger.
I'm personally convinced that the German language is structurally conducive to complex philosophical thought.
>>8033445
There aren't any because English speakers do real philosophy.
eg. John Locke, Bertrand Russell, Karl Popper, Charles Sanders Peirce, Willard Van Orman Quine etc.
Poetry: English (Shakespare, Donne, Milton, Romantics, Modernists)
Novels: French (it's got Flaubert AND Proust!!!)
Philosophy: German (just for Witty, though Nietzsche and Husserl are also pretty cool)
>>8033462
>>8033462
The Anglo-American tradition in philosophy is easily the best one, but the most important figure of it is a German-speaker.
>>8033445
you literally stole that from Heidegger
German, with French as a close second.
>>8033327
Poetry: English, German, French
Philosophy: German, French, English
Novels: English, German, French
>>8033462
>Bertrand Russell
stopped reading there m8
>>8033495
french is the best for poetry lmao u trippin
>>8033463
/thread
although "(just for witty)" is dumb
haven't read too much french poetry but there are some godly german philosophers (celan, hölderlin, novalis, and rilke)
undoubtedly the best philosophy, currently going through some husserl right now
german novels are pretty fuckin dope too, reading Das Glasperlenspiel and Der Zauberberg at the moment, i find the language in particular to be highly enjoyable
even when i was learning german i felt it was much easier to speak in "philosophical terms" in comparison to english
anyways, deutscher Meisterrass
poetry english or german
philosophy who gives a shit but german
novels english
i speak english and german french is a shitty language
Germany, of course.
>>8033719
Kant, Hegel and Heidegger can go fuck themselves
Poetry: English closely followed by French
Philosophy: German
Novels: Obviously French
>>8033327
>German
>Poetry
>ever
>>8033462
Also Hume, Hobbes, Berkeley, Reid, Mill, Sidgwick, Moore, Kripke, Lewis, Sellars, Rawls
>I'm personally convinced that the German language is structurally conducive to complex philosophical thought
that's pretty dumb.
>>8033327
>Philosophy
German>French>English
>Novels
German=French=English
>Poetry
>French>=English>German
Overall, English, it's not even close.
>>8033463
>Novels it has Flaubert and Proust!
Nigga cmon english has Joyce, Dickens, Beckett and Faulkner...
>>8034194
Do you speak German, or did you just feel like sharing an uneducated opinion?
>>8034280
But Beckett wrote most of his novels in French even though he played a big part in the translation process.
All of it goes to English. Except for philosophy where Germany wins. Poetry you might be able to argue for the frogs.
>>8033445
>wittgenstein
>german
wittgenstein was british
>>8034327
No, he was Austrian. Got his main education in philosophy from Russell, though.
>>8034280
And Melville, Sterne, Cabell, etc
Still French is not bad for novels: Robbe-Grillet, Queneau, Proust, Flaubert, Stendhal, Gide, etc, It's really plays and poetry that put English on top, Shakespeare, Chaucer, Milton, Donne, Wordsworth, Shelley, Coleridge, Yeats, Whitman, Hopkins, Browning, Synge, Shaw, etc
>>8034194
None of them are close to Kant.
>>8034334
if he spent almost his entire life in britain and was a professor in britain he can at the very least be considered a british philosopher
>>8033327
italy
italy
italy
OP is a fag
goodnight
>>8034339
Hume
I hear that the coarsest, ugliest-sounding languages tend to have some of the best poetry. German, Chinese, Old Norse, etc.
Hence why opera, wherein the words serve the music, is almost purely Italian until you get to the Romantic period, while the art song, wherein the music serve the words (which are unaltered poems), was dominated by German and French composers (English composers were busy obsessing over folk songs and also being basically nonexistent at the time).
>>8034357
and then I remembered I was on /lit/, not /mu/.
>>8034280
French have Bloy, Huysmans, Sade, Bataille and Céline ?
Ranking of European Languages on Quality of all Written Works:
>God Tier
Ancient Greek
Latin
>High Tier
Russian
French
German
>Mid Tier
English
Italian
Spanish
>Low Tier
Scandinavian languages (Swedish, Danish, etc.)
Central European Languages
Non-Russian Slavic languages
Everything else
>Shit Tier
Pourtuguese
>>8034406
Good ranking, I can agree with this.
>>8034406
>implying you know each of those languages in order to judge from the original source
>mfw
>>8034406
You can't even speak English
>English poetry
Gentilshommes, je vous en prie...
>>8034406
Putting Ancient Greek and Latin on top is what only an irrational classics-fetishizing pseud would do
>>8033327
I actually don't know if I hate anglos or germans the most.
French are regicidal degenerates but they at least have the excuse of having a lot of their original stock replaced with wops.
>>8034664
since walt whitman invented that you can simply write words in a column and call it poetry, english poetry went downwards
>Philosophy
Obviously German
>Novels
English
>Poetry
French
>>8034346
In the same sense that Eliot was an English poet, i.e.: he wasn't.
>>8036052
Whitman didn't invent blank/free verse but ok.
>>8036231
>2016 anno domini
>not knowing the difference between blank and free verse
>>8036068
this
>>8033462
>English speakers
>Karl Popper
>poetry
English obviously
>philosophy
Germany obviously
>Novels
Who cares, inferior art form. France I guess.
Holy shit, anglos are delusional. German wins novels and philosophy, french wins poetry.
>>8036231
He didn't invent free verse, but not knowing the difference between blank and free verse while trying to make that point is pretty embarrassing
>>8034308
just got done with narziß & goldmund about a month ago. pretty legit, but there are almost word for word passages in there from die Geburt der Tragödie!
>>8033463
Pretty much this and it's kind of obvious.
French philosophers have always been shallow just look at Camus or edgey like Satre or Voltaire. I am a big fan of Rousseau but he leaves something to be desired. He's for feels not reals and Kant does even that better. Other than Hobbes Locke and Hume, there are no important Anglophone philosophers.
Novels in French are obvious. They were more amorous and all novels are about adultery and hence cucking. Germans and English novelists are less obvious. Sure Goethe and Faulkner and Jane Austen and whatnot but the French are better overall.
Poetry is a hard call. Shakespeare and Donne come to mind but I need to read more poetry in French and not knowing German, I couldn't comment but they don't seem poetic.
>>8037516
>Camus, Sartre, Voltaire
Those aren't really philosophers.
>but the French are better overall.
I still think that English novels are far superior. With all the British authors, plus all the Irish authors, plus all the American authors, you really cannot compare.
As for poetry, French is, without a doubt, superior.
>>8034351
nah
>>8036046
You're just a contrarian
>>8037591
It's not even remotely contrarian. Pretty much anyone would agree that the English, French, German and Russian languages have many more interesting things to read.
>>8037548
>>Camus, Sartre, Voltaire
>Those aren't really philosophers
Exactly, you say French philosophy and you think of a bunch of nonentities. It is only natural because there is barely anyone of note. But there's something so voluptuous about French novels that is missing in English novels. In terms of American novels, there are some good ones but nothing on par with anything continental and then in terms of Britain, who really takes the cake?
In terms of French poetry, you have any recommendations? I can read fiction in French pretty easily now. I'm middling when it comes to reading comprehension. I do want to know some poets that will be down the line but in terms of entry level any ideas?
>>8037621
Then you're just a follower.
>>8037626
First to come to mind for French philosophy is postmodernists like Derrida & friends actually
>>8037626
> It is only natural because there is barely anyone of note
I'm not an expert of French philosophy but I'm pretty sure that Malebranche, Merleau-Ponty, Bergson and Condillac can be quite interesting.
>who really takes the cake?
People like Sterne and George Eliot for example. Plus a lot of Irish writers.
>In terms of French poetry, you have any recommendations?
As far as I know, Lamartine is a very good start. Typical romantic poet, some find him a bit boring, but the regularity and the precision of his poetry is quite remarkable. A very solid place to start.
>>8037626
>you say French philosophy and you think of a bunch of nonentities
Descartes.
>ctrl+f, no Descartes...
This whole discussion is stupid, but come on...
>>8034406
Serbo-Croatian deserves mid tier at least
>>8033377
English is a trash language for poetry. German wins there too.
>>8037701
Descartes wrote in Latin.
Poetry: English
Philosophy: German
Novels: English
In my own opinion, English is a paintbrush whereas German is a knife; that is why the former is so well suited to the 'arts', whilst the latter is better suited to the cold and occasionally mathematical logic that philosophy requires. That is not to suggest a preference; I like both in their own rights, though they have very different uses
The whole French literary tradition, if you ask me, is an exercise in sophistry; using Schopenhauer's definition of the term. That is, people who want to be recognized by others for their merits; rather than being content in their own knowledge.
>>8034321
>all of it goes to English
>except two thirds of it
lolwut
>>8033487
Wew I came up with that thought independently in my second semester of German am I a patrish????
>>8033327
>Poetry
German
>Philosophy
Obviously German
>Novels
German wins again.
>>8041102
>german 'poetry'
I get that Rilke is nice but he can't go toe to toe with Shakespeare, Wordsworth, Coleridge, Blake, Eliot
>>8040916
All of them except philosophy. That's 1/3, I know you're on /lit/ but we expect a basic competence in elementary level math.
>>8041122
>Wordsworth
>>8041136
Please tell me you've heard of the poet Wordsworth before this thread. He's one of the more famous poets of the language.
>>8041145
he's obviously complete garbage, look at that shitty cover lmao
>>8041102
>German
>poetry
>German
>novels
>>8041151
It's just kind of embarrassing if you first heard about Wordsworth because of people here posting the notoriously bad book covers from that bargain bin publisher.
>>8041152
Better dead than red.
>>8041157
It's just kind of embarrassing that you like a "poet" who's legacy is a bunch of books that looks so fucking terrible he might as well have vomited all over them
>>8033327
French for novels (obviously), for poetry I couldn't say as I know only french poetry, and German for philosophy.
>>8041179
That's not really his legacy. The publisher just arbitrarily chose to take his name, probably because it has the word "word" in it, words being often featured in books, and they thought they were being clever.
>>8041179
>he doesn't get the irony of wordsworth covers
>>8041191
The covers are serious, not ironical, which is part of what makes them amusing.
>>8041197
>ironical
>>8041203
That is the appropriate adjectival form.
>>8041203
who cares, English is a shit tier language
>>8034406
>implying danish is low tier
Kierkegaard, Blixen, Johannes V. Jensen, Tom Kristensen, H. C. Andersen.
Official power rankings:
>Poetry
English, French, German
>Philosophy
German, English, French
>Novels
English, French, German
>>8041226
Presumptuous of you to assume that I'm not published, or that I've ever attempted to become published. Perhaps I'm simply being ironical.
tfw monolingual american
tfw wanna read nietzsche in german
tfw would rather learn french
tfw spanish would be more useful
how do i decide
>>8033445
John Green
>>8041421
I was literally in the same boat trying to decide between French for literature and Spanish for daily life. I've chosen French and have decided to move to France for a few months next year to help justify it.
>>8041421
French, and Nietzsche would agree
>>8033327
German
>>8034406
you've got it upside down mate
>>8033333
Checked.
>>8034346
You're as bad as people who claim Christian Bale and Albert Einstein were Americans.
>>8042010
>spanish "literature"
lmfao
>>8033327
English
German
English
American English.
>>8040326
>English is a paintbrush whereas German is a knife
says the english-only speaker
>>8043611
This
English is good for small talk and literally nothing else.
>>8042010
>Spanish
>a real language
>not just the Latin equivalent of ebonics
wew
