I often read
Lob, Anregungen und Kritik erwünscht.
My question: is it necessary to differ between Lob
and Kritik
? Does Kritik
not include Lob
?
"Kritik" can be used in a neutral way, meaning "critique" as in "review":
Ich habe eine Filmkritik geschrieben.
I read your quote with this meaning.
It can also be used meaning "negative" statements (arguably, still constructive ones), i.e. "criticism":
Ich kritisiere seine Vorgehensweise.
Immer kritisierst du nur an mir rum!
Except in cases with an explicit review context you should probably assume the latter meaning.
Yes Kritik can be positive and negative. Yet Lob is only positive and Anregungen are similar to Kritik but more konstruktive Kritik.
So you have.
According to wikipedia Kritik = Beurteilung.
An Urteil (judgement) can be positive or negative.
So in German you use this phrase of "Lob, Anregungen, Kritik" to solicit all three forms of feedback. Logical Analysis (Kritik), Emotional Encouragement (Lob) and positive reinforcement / cooperation (Anregungen).
Wikipedia:
Kritik Unter Kritik versteht man die Beurteilung eines Gegenstandes oder einer Handlung anhand von Maßstäben. Wie die Philosophin Anne-Barb Hertkorn ausgeführt hat, ist Kritik damit „eine Grundfunktion der denkenden Vernunft und wird, sofern sie auf das eigene Denken angewandt wird, ein Wesensmerkmal der auf Gültigkeit Anspruch erhebenden Urteilsbildung.“
Lob = praise
Anregungen = comments or suggestions
Kritik = criticism
In German as in English, criticism in this case can be either completely negative, or it can be "constructive" criticism -- but it generally means you've done something wrong, or at least not as well as you might have. Someone asking for criticism is probably asking for constructive criticism, but they still want to know what they did wrong. In this context, the positive connotations of "Kritik" would be there (in the sense that criticism can be constructive), albeit minimal.
If you want to understand "Kritik" in the sense of critical analysis, then it would include praise as well, but since "Kritik" also has another, less neutral meaning, I believe "Lob" is added to emphasize the fact that people also want to know what they did well. In addition, it seems to be something of a preformulated "stock phrase" people can use when they want feedback on their work.