Philosophy as Translation: Toward a Translational Education

ongoing

"The conviction at the heart of this project is that philosophy can no longer postpone systematic reflection on translation. This is not only due to a widespread ""translational turn"" in the humanities but because translation is at the core of Europe and of philosophy itself. In the European multilingual context, translation represents one of the centripetal forces of European identity and community-building. At the same time, translation offers both a praxis and a conceptual tool for orienting EU responses to migratory pressures. In order to fill the gap in the literature on translation in both the “continental” and the “analytic” tradition, I will continue an endeavour I have been pursuing for the past decade: putting translation at the centre of philosophical inquiry. This philosophy of translation must overcome the fracture between the two philosophical traditions opening a new inquiry field beyond their unilateral approaches. Throughout the history of thought, the reciprocal relation between translation and philosophy appears in two guises: on the one hand, as the translation of philosophy; on the other, as the philosophy of translation, i.e. as sporadic philosophical remarks on translation. My hypothesis is that there is an even more intimate relation between the two – one that concerns the practice and meaning of philosophy itself, which cannot do without a translational element. Translation is the motive force of philosophy; it is an inchoate and formative element of several philosophical projects, offering a transformation of the tradition’s texts and, more importantly, of the translator. In the second stage of the project, I will exploit the transformative and pedagogical dimension of translation in the context of education, fostering European multilingualism through designing specific pedagogical activities that will introduce translation into traditionally monolingual classes, e.g. philosophy classes in high schools and universities. "