Editing Max Müller (section)

==Scholarly and literary works==

===Gifford Lectures===
[[File:Friedrich Max Müller, Vanity Fair, 1875-02-06.jpg|thumb|1875 [[Vanity Fair (British magazine)|''Vanity Fair'']] caricature of Müller confirming that, at the age of fifty-one, with numerous honours, he was one of the truly notable "Men of the Day".]]
In 1888, Müller was appointed Gifford Lecturer at the [[University of Glasgow]]. These [[Gifford Lectures]] were the first in an annual series, given at several Scottish universities, that has continued to the present day. Over the next four years, Müller gave four series of lectures.<ref name="gifford_bio" /> The titles and order of the lectures were as follows:<ref name="gifford4">Müller, F. Max (1895), ''Theosophy or Psychological Religion.'' London: Longmans, Green and Co., pp.89–90.</ref>

# '''Natural Religion'''. This first course of lectures was intended as purely introductory, and had for its object a definition of Natural Religion in its widest sense.
# '''Physical Religion'''. This second course of lectures was intended to show how different nations had arrived at a belief in something infinite behind the finite, in something invisible behind the visible, in many unseen agents or gods of nature, until they reached a belief in one god above all those gods. In short, a history of the discovery of the infinite in nature.
# '''Anthropological Religion'''. This third course was intended to show how different nations arrived at a belief in a [[soul]], how they named its various faculties, and what they imagined about its fate after death.
# '''Theosophy or Psychological Religion'''. The fourth and last course of lectures was intended to examine the relation between God and the soul ("these two Infinites"), including the ideas that some of the principal nations of the world have formed concerning this relation. Real religion, Müller asserted, is founded on a true perception of the ''relation'' of the soul to God and of God to the soul; Müller wanted to prove that this was true, not only as a postulate, but as an historical fact. The original title of the lectures was 'Psychological Religion' but Müller felt compelled to add 'Theosophy' to it. Müller's final Gifford Lecture is significant in interpreting his work broadly, as he situates his philological and historical research within a [[Hermeticism|Hermetic]] and [[mystical]] theological project.{{sfnp|Josephson-Storm|2017|pp=108–110}}

===As translator===
In 1881, he published a translation of the first edition of [[Immanuel Kant|Kant]]'s ''[[Critique of Pure Reason]]''. He agreed with [[Schopenhauer]] that this edition was the most direct and honest expression of Kant's thought. His translation corrected several errors that were committed by previous translators.<ref>{{cite book|title = The Athenaeum|publisher=J. Lection|quote=At times Prof. Müller has succeeded in correcting an error and in coming closer to his original or has modified the harshness of Mr. Meiklejohn's style; but in other passages we prefer the latter, and of certain general changes made by Prof. Max Müller.|year = 1882|page = 629}} Original from ''Princeton University''</ref> In his Translator's Preface, Müller wrote:

{{blockquote|The bridge of thoughts and sighs that spans the whole history of the Aryan world has its first arch in the Veda, its last in Kant's Critique.&nbsp;... While in the Veda we may study the childhood, we may study in Kant's Critique of Pure Reason the perfect manhood of the Aryan mind.&nbsp;... The materials are now accessible, and the English-speaking race, the race of the future, will have in Kant's Critique another Aryan heirloom, as precious as the Veda—a work that may be criticised, but can never be ignored.{{cite quote|date=January 2024}}}}

Müller continued to be influenced by the Kantian [[Transcendental idealism|Transcendentalist]] model of spirituality,<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=h5XMBlBVbQsC&pg=PA218 ''Kant's Critique of Pure Reason''], Last Essays by the Right Hon. Professor F. Max Müller ... First Series: Essays on Language, Folklore and Other Subjects; pub. by Longmans, Green and Company, 1901.</ref> and was opposed to Darwinian ideas of human development.<ref>{{cite book|title = The Twentieth Century, Volume 23|page=745|quote = according to Mr. Max Müller, Kant established against Darwin by proving that there is transcendentalist side to human knowledge which affords.}} Original from ''Cornell University''</ref> He argued that "language forms an impassable barrier between man and beast."<ref>Müller, F. Max. (1899) ''Three Lectures on the Science of Language, etc., with a Supplement, My Predecessors''. 3rd ed. Chicago. p. 9.</ref>