Cognition and Comprehension in Translational Hermeneutics

2021

Cognition and Comprehension in Translational Hermeneutics

Übersetzung als Aufbau des Vergleichbaren (Auf Ricoeurs Pfad mit Wittgenstein und Toury)

Many of the apparent impasses and/or paradoxes in Translation Studies result from the lack of greater coherence between our basic assumptions about the relation language/world and the theories we derive from them. One of these apparent dilemmas is the concept of hypothetical untranslatability, which is logically dependent on the premise that translation is a phenomenon of language as a system, as opposed to the primacy of the practice from which language itself emerges. Paul Ricoeur, in three conferences published posthumously, coined a formula capable of dissolving this impasse: translation as the Construction of the Comparable. My aim here is to show the profound implications of this insight of Ricoeur, assuming a conception of language informed by the philosophical therapy of the later Wittgenstein and considering authors who start out from this therapy to formulate philosophical theses on how language and perception are articulated. This is another step towards an Epistemology of Translating, tributary of the later Wittgenstein and in line with Arley Moreno’s Epistemology of the Usage.