[3] Pp. 2 and 3 of the original, and pp. 216 to 218 of the present translation.
As regards the terms chosen to convey the German meaning, I can hardly hope to have succeeded in every case in adequately rendering it, still less can I expect to have satisfied my English readers. Several words of frequent occurrence and of considerable importance for the right understanding of the original, have been used at different times by different English philosophers in senses so various, that, until our philosophical terminology has by universal consent attained far greater precision than at present, it must always be difficult for the writer or translator to convey to the reader's mind precisely the same thought that was in his own. To prevent unnecessary confusion however, by leaving too much to chance, I will here briefly state those terms which give most latitude for misapprehension, explaining the sense in which I employ them and also the special meaning attached to some of them by Schopenhauer, who often differs in this from other writers. They are as follows.
(_a._) _Anschauung_ (_anschauen_, literally 'to behold') I have rendered differently, according to its double meaning in German. When used to designate the mental act by which an object is perceived, as the cause of a sensation received, it is rendered by _perception_. When used to lay stress upon _immediate_, as opposed to _abstract_ representation, it is rendered by _intuition_. This last occurs however more often in the adjective form.
(_b._) _Vorstellung_ (_vorstellen_, literally 'to place before') I render by _representation_ in spite of its foreign, unwelcome sound to the English ear, as being the term which nearest approaches the German meaning. The faculty of representation is defined by Schopenhauer himself as "an exceedingly complicated physiological process in the brain of an animal, the result of which is the consciousness of a _picture_ there."
(_c._) _Auffassung_ (_auffassen_, literally 'to catch up') has so many shades of meaning in German that it has to be translated in many different ways according to the relation in which it stands in the context. It signifies _apprehension_, _comprehension_, _perception_, _viewing_ and _grasping_.