Translation, Philosophy and The Search For Truth

1st Symposium on Linguistics and Translation
April 10, 2012 in Baghdada, Iraq
Al-Mustansiriya University
College of Arts
TRANSLATION, PHILOSOPHY, AND THE SEARCH FOR TRUTH
By Asst. Lect. DIA ABDULLAH SULAIBI
College of Arts
Department of Translation
E-mail: dia_sulaibi@yahoo.com
Abstract
Translation has gone under the microscope many times and many theories
have been created to explain, systematize and understand it. Some of these theories
are linguistic (Jakobson, Nida, etc.) others are cultural (the postcolonial translation
theory, etc.) as well as other theories that approached translation from various
angles. Some of these theories are philosophical in the sense that they deal with
translation from a philosophical point of view. The current paper is to review and
classify these theories and identify the reasons behind their inception. In doing so,
the relation between philosophy and translation will be examined and determined.
It is proposed in this paper that translation in its nature is a philosophical process
that involves logic and epistemology.
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1. The relation between philosophy and other disciplines

It is a definite fact that there are relations between the various disciplines of
knowledge. Although each is regarded as an independent field of its own, it is
undeniable that they are all, in one way or another, interrelated. It goes without
saying that this fact is, indeed, quite valuable for the survival and development of
each discipline as it revisits and rediscovers its associations with other disciplines
which might eventually, but not usually, lead to the starting of an interdisciplinary
field that crosses traditional boundaries between academic disciplines or schools of
thought.
Philosophy, according to Encyclopedia Britannica (2012), is "the critical
examination of the grounds for fundamental beliefs and an analysis of the basic
concepts employed in the expression of such beliefs." The conventional definition
of philosophy is the love of wisdom (ibid). However, wisdom is a difficult
term to define because one may not know what constitutes wisdom and whose
wisdom we are talking about. Wisdom is found in every culture and no single
culture can claim to possess the ultimate answer and knowledge. Philosophy
should be best understood as an intellectual and mental activity. It allows one to
activate and stimulate ones mind to reflect, critically assess and evaluate all
human experiences and interests. One must not also forget that philosophy is the
source of many of today's disciplines, since philosophy "was the grand Greek quest
for understanding everything" (Toretti, 1999:1).
The fact that philosophy is what it is makes it the one discipline that can,
almost always, be potentially involved for the re-consideration and, consequent
rejuvenation, of other disciplines. We read about the philosophy of chemistry
(Scerri, 2000), the philosophy of psychology (Wilson, 2005) or even the
philosophy of mathematics (Avigad, 2007). One should not also forget the type of
philosophy most relevant to our topic; the philosophy of language (Lycan, 2000).
Although these disciplines originated from philosophy, they have actually evolved
into scientific fields in their own rights. Philosophy had been introduced into these
disciplines either because they were suffering from stagnation and they had to be
taken into new directions of research which will revive them and inject new lives
into them or because scholars thought it was time to go back to the basics of the
field and approach its principals philosophically (this will be discussed in further
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detail in 2. below). Either way, philosophy has, quite dramatically, come full
circle.
2. The relation between philosophy and translation
In 1978, Andr Lefevere (Bassnett, 2002:12) proposed that the name
Translation Studies should be used to describe the "discipline that concerns itself
with the problems raised by the production and description of translations". Since
then, the term has been used to describe the "systematic study of translation" (ibid),
thus including all the theories that were proposed concerning translation. That does
not mean that the study of translation started in the same year when the name was
proposed, it is much older than that. Researchers mention that writings on
translation go back to the Romans (Zakhir, 2009:3) and, of course, all this rich and
diverse history of writings and studies from the time of the Romans till now do fall
nowadays under the rubric 'translation studies'. The evolution of translation studies
throughout its history has been quite vivid and colorful, if one may say, as the
studies examined translation from almost every possible angle. A few of these
studies took philosophy as its playground and built theories that inspected
translation using philosophical tools.
Anthony Pym (2007:42) refers to three ways in which these two disciplines,
philosophy and translation studies, are related to each other. First, there are the
philosophers who have used translation as a case study for philosophical issues.
This is nowhere to be found in classical Greek philosophy or even later schools of
philosophy until German Romanticism (ibid.) when the German philosopher
Wilhelm von Humboldt included a statement of his theory of translation in his
introduction to his German version of Agamemnon where he formulated a new
approach to the problem of translation and developed concepts that have been
taken up again only in modern and contemporary translation theories. Humboldt
viewed all languages as being worked in the same way which made him aware of
how translation could be used to refine and standardize developing target
languages (Mueller-Vollmer, 2011). Second, there is the case of the translators and
translation theorists who have referred to philosophy in support for their ideas.
Here Pym (2007:37) refers to Walter Benjamin and Jacque Derrida who took a
"whole system on board, seeking its ethical consequences in a more global sense"
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and suggests that if there is a particular way of using philosophical discourse it

should not be for solving isolated problems in translation. Third, there are
philosophers and translators who have commented on the translation of
philosophical discourses. These emerged as a reaction of philosophers to the
translations of philosophical works from Greek. Numerous philosophers took part
in this -Derrida, Heidegger, Schleiermacher and others- and some of them even
thought that translation might have become too important to be left to mere
translation theorists, preferring their own translations to anything produced by
mere translators (ibid:40). Jean-Rene Ladmiral (qtd. in Uehara, 2010:308), the
French Scholar of translation studies, stated this same point when he wrote that the
translation of philosophical texts indicates "that strictly speaking there is a
philosophy of translation in other words that there is a philosophical wager" in
every translation.
3. Theorizing on translation
The importance of translation as a process that takes place amongst all
languages and cultures has ignited an interest of thinking about it and theorizing on
it. This interest is not mainly a concern of translators, writers, and translation and
literary critics; it is also shared by intellectuals and philosophers. There are several
modern theories on translation that were philosophical in their approach. Munday
(2001:163-170) lists the following:
-
Steiners theory of Hermeneutic Motion

Pounds theory of the Energy of Language
Benjamins theory of the Task of the translator
Derridas theory of Deconstruction
Munday gives a lot of space to Steiners theory as it is the most full-blown

philosophical theory on translation, Pounds and Benjamins theories are actually
the results of articles that these two translators and literary critics wrote expressing
their own opinions on their experiences in translation.
The American poet and translator Ezra Pound wrote 'Guidos Relations', an
article on his translation of some of the works of the Italian poet Guido Cavalcanti,
a contemporary of Dante Alighieri, into English, in 1918. In that article he sets
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philosophical and poetic standards (Venuti, 2000:12) for his translation as he

compares it with other translations for the same poet performed by the English poet
and translator Dante Gabriel Rossetti -who is of Italian origins-. Pound concludes
that
The translator is in all probability impotent to do all of the work for the
linguistically lazy reader. He can show where the treasure lies, he can guide the
reader in choice of what tongue is to be studied, and he can very materially assist
the hurried student who has a smattering of a language and the energy to read the
original text alongside the metrical gloze.
(Pound, 2004)
Walter Benjamin, the German philosopher and translator, on the other hand,
translated a collection of French poems by Baudelaire, and prefaced it with an
article discussing his philosophical point of view on translation in general, a point
of view that was described as a utopian vision of linguistic harmony by Venuti
(2000: 11) where the "task of the translator consists in finding that intended effect
[Intention] upon the language into which he is translating which produces in it the
echo of the original." (Benjamin, 2004)
Jacque Derrida, the French philosopher, developed the theory of
deconstruction through a series of writings that dealt, more than once, with
translation. His most eminent works dealing with the translation are 'Des Tours de
Babel' and 'What is a relevant Translation?' his theory was a critical and literary
theory more than anything else. His main concern was providing a rereading of the
text, and what better way to show that than translation. He says, "If the translator
neither restitutes nor copies the original, it is because the original lives on and
transforms itself. The translation will truly be a moment in the growth of the
original, which will complete itself in enlarging itself" (Derrida: 1985).
The hermeneutic motion that was set forth by George Steiner is possibly the
most developed theory that considered translation philosophically. Steiner stated
his ideas in his book After Babel where he returns to German Romanticism, a
philosophical and cultural movement that started in the Nineteenth century
(Encyclopdia Britannica, 2012) and the hermeneutic tradition to view translating
as an interpretation of the foreign text that is "at once profoundly sympathetic and
violent, exploitive and ethically restorative." (Venuti, 2000: 124) For Steiner,
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language is not instrumental in communicating meaning, but constitutive in

individual usage, that resists interpretation and escapes the universalizing concepts
reconstructing it. Accordingly, Steiner argues that great translation must carry
with it the most precise sense possible of the resistant, of the barriers intact at the
heart of understanding (qtd. in Venuti 2004).
Steiner surmises that translation is a hermeneutical task, not a science, but an
exact art. Thus, the theory Steiner produces attempts to be at once a chronological
summary of the stages of translation and a view of the ideal balance that every
good translation must achieve. Steiner divides translation into four separate
"motions": initiative trust, aggression, incorporation, and retribution. The first and
last motions pay respect to the source text or its authors intentions, while
aggression and incorporation benefit the translator himself and, presumably, his
audience. Ideally, translation must balance these four motions to achieve a kind of
stasis.
Another theory remains that is equally significant when it comes to
philosophical considerations of translation. Munday as he mentions that the
theories he is considering for his chapter are "modern" and have "considerable
influence"- disregarded this theory. It is the theory of Friedrich Schleiermacher. In
an article entitled 'On the Different Methods of Translating' which was published
1813, Schleiermacher -as the title suggests- talks in detail about the different ways
of translation that were already established and argues against all, suggesting
instead two "possibilities" and insisting that "beside these two methods there can
exit no third one that might serve some particular end" (Schleiermacher, 2004). He
explains that by saying:
In my opinion, there are only two possibilities. Either the translator leaves the
author in peace as much as possible and moves the reader toward him; or he
leaves the reader in peace as much as possible and moves the writer toward him.
These two paths are so very different from one another that one or the other must
certainly be followed as strictly as possible.
(Ibid)
A dichotomy which Venuti, in this particular context, describes as "foreignizing"
vs. "Germanizing" (Venuti, 1991:139)
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4. Analyzing the theories

It is important to notice that the aforementioned theories as well as any
other translation theories that tend to have a philosophical trend can be either of
three groups;
- The first is the group of theories which were put forth by philosophers who
experienced translation first-hand (i.e. they are translators; like Steiner,
Schleiermacher and Benjamin),
- The second group is that of philosophers who did not experience translation
themselves but rather experienced it second-hand (i.e. they are discussing
others' works in translation; like Derrida discussing the translation of
Shakespeare's plays),
- The third group is that of translators pushing their discussions on translation
into the realm of philosophy (like Pound).
What happens in the first case, that of the philosopher-translator, is that a
philosopher takes over a translation task that usually involves a tremendous effort
(like when Schleiermacher spent twenty-five years of his life translating the
complete works of Plato, or Benjamin translated some of the most significant
French poems into German) and the philosopher, being a philosopher by nature,
lays his philosophical thought on the whole process and comes out with a theory
that amalgamates his philosophical expertise with his practical understanding of
translation.
In the second case, the case of the philosopher-but-not-translator, the
philosopher -Derrida specifically- encounters the process of translation from the
point of view of an analyst but his lack of practicality makes him more of an
observer that wants to reconsider the whole matter just for the sake of extending
the domain of philosophy into almost new venues. Translation here was no more
than a tool that Derrida used to strengthen his deconstruction theory. Thus, he
came up with a deconstructionist translation theory that, although drew attention to
the double binds of language and to the stability and instability of meaning, implies
bottomless chessboards and random, accidental development, without an end
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(Gentzler, 1993:167); a theory that is "not a theory in a traditional sense it is not

prescriptive nor does it propose a better model of transporting" (Ibid:166-7)
The last case is that of the translator-but-not-philosopher where we find
Pound, an already established poet and translator, venturing with his ideas into
philosophical territories. Munday (2001:169) considers Pound's view of translation
as criticism and his own form of creative translation a great influence on many
translation theories that followed and that Pound's theory "continues to be 'reborn'
or 'regested' in many guises" (ibid.).
The case of the philosopher-translator can be related to the first point
described by Pym and mentioned above (see section 2.)
5. Translation as philosophy: The Search for truth

Philosophy has played an important role being a spring from which many
disciplines have emerged and as it comes back now to work in the further
investigation of these same disciplines into themselves, it has actually given so
much and taken so little. As far as translation studies is concerned, this is also very
true. Pym (2007:33) even described the relation between philosophy and
translation studies as "highly asymmetric". The theorization of translation, whether
by translators or academics, has leant on philosophical discourses far more than
philosophers have seriously considered translation (ibid.). Translation studies, as
any other discipline, aims at studying, researching, experimenting, and theorizing
on its subject of study; translation: the process, its working and concept.
Philosophy has been a generous venue for translation studies to thrive.
Although philosophy has been defined sophisticatedly by many philosophers
as the "the science by which the natural light of reason studies the first causes or
highest principles of all things the science of things in their first causes, in so far
as these belong to the natural order." (Jacques Maritain, 1947:108) or even that
philosophy is,
Not a theory but an activity. A philosophical work consists essentially of
elucidations. The result of philosophy is not a number of philosophical
propositions, but to make propositions clear. Philosophy should make clear and
delimit sharply the thoughts which otherwise are, as it were, opaque and blurred."
(Wittgenstein, 1922:44)
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But in a few words, George Berkley (1999:3) could capture the essence of
philosophy when he described it as "being nothing else but the study of wisdom
and truth." the truth behind every aspect of knowledge. Truth is not absolute, it is
relative. So, the search for truth continues and never stops. Philosophy is a
continuous process of inspection and examination that reaches every corner of
knowledge and strives to grasp the truth behind it. Every discipline has the same
motivation concerning its field, including translation studies. But what makes
translation studies different from other disciplines is that its matter of investigation
and research is actually a manifestation of the constant search for truth; a
manifestation of philosophy. Translation, in the words of Pym (2007:41), becomes
a way of "actually doing philosophy". But there remains a main difference; as
philosophy seeks its holy grail of truth and knowledge out in the wide world and
spares no place doing so. Translation, on the other hand, seeks what it requires of
truth within the realm of the text it is operating with and its relation with the
outside world.
But what is truth? And how come both philosophy and translation search for
the same thing? Aristotle defines truth as "to say of what is that it is, and of what is
not that it is not, is true." (David, 2009) as simple as this is, it is quite informative
in the sense that it implies logic in the determination of what truth is and what it is
not. A translator, in that sense may utilize that simple logic to the text in hand to
determine, logically, what is true and what is not. The translator is practicing this
epistemological process unknowingly in his quest for the truth, and like any
philosophical practice, translation is continuous, monotonous and limitless.
Conclusions
Translation and philosophy are related to each other in more than one way.
They do have a history together in which they affected each other, although the
influence of philosophy on translation is far greater than the reverse. Many theories
of translation have been proposed and some of them were philosophical and tried
to consider a new approach to translation. This relation between translation and
philosophy becomes even stronger when one looks at translation as a philosophical
process that implies tools of logic and epistemology to seek the truth behind the
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texts that are being translated. Considering all this, it is plausible to say that
translation is a manifestation of philosophy that is practiced within the realm of the
text being translated.
Note
Lawrence Venuti did included Jerome's letter to Pammachius in his second edition
of The Translation Studies Reader (2004), thus making Jerome one of the earliest
translation scholars. Hence, whenever the researcher uses the term translation
studies he is actually referring to the discipline without making any distinction
between the times before or after the term "translation studies" was introduced.
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1st Symposium on Linguistics and Translation

April 10, 2012 in Baghdada, Iraq