DIE SCHERE #61: Note A masterful miniature lesson in stylistics on a fine point which many native speakers of German are confused about. Lots of people say »scheinbar« when in fact they mean »anscheinend«. Perhaps the rule we learned in school implied too much mental effort: if you are not positive whether something is a fact or genuine, use »anscheinend« [apparently], thus expressing, »It looks to me as if this is so, but it might be otherwise«. If, however, you know for sure that something is not what it seems or pretends to be, you use »scheinbar« [seemingly], thus expressing that you know better. EJ replaces this clumsy explanation with a fresh one, both elegant and terse. It is presented in a form typical of EJ's constant linking of the abstract with the concrete. A conceptual definition [rationale Wahrnehmung = Feststellung versus sinnliche Wahrnehmung = Vermutung] is visualized first by a historical example [Copernicus], then by an anecdote which at the end seems to turn into the beginning of a well-told story. Each of the elements of this new explanation includes enough implications to serve as sufficient illustration for both »scheinbar« and »anscheinend«. Copernicus demonstrated that the movement of the sun, before him regarded as real or at best as »anscheinend«, is in fact »scheinbar«. The anecdote opens the eye for a more complex view of the common distinction between appearance and reality. Appearance in its turn has two layers: the surface that meets the eye only, and the truth beneath, only open to the mind.
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