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Cassin, Barbara - Dictionary of Untranslatables: A Philosophical Lexicon (translation/transnation)

Details: Category: Bibliography

This is an encyclopedic dictionary of close to 400 important philosophical, literary, and political terms and concepts that defy easy--or any--translation from one language and culture to another. Drawn from more than a dozen languages, terms such as Dasein (German), pravda (Russian), saudade (Portuguese), and stato (Italian) are thoroughly examined in all their cross-linguistic and cross-cultural complexities. Spanning the classical, medieval, early modern, modern, and contemporary periods, these are terms that influence thinking across the humanities. The entries, written by more than 150 distinguished scholars, describe the origins and meanings of each term, the history and context of its usage, its translations into other languages, and its use in notable texts. The dictionary also includes essays on the special characteristics of particular languages--English, French, German, Greek, Italian, Portuguese, Russian, and Spanish.

Originally published in French, this one-of-a-kind reference work is now available in English for the first time, with new contributions from Judith Butler, Daniel Heller-Roazen, Ben Kafka, Kevin McLaughlin, Kenneth Reinhard, Stella Sandford, Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak, Jane Tylus, Anthony Vidler, Susan Wolfson, Robert J. C. Young, and many more.The result is an invaluable reference for students, scholars, and general readers interested in the multilingual lives of some of our most influential words and ideas.

From the introduction:

“In order to find the meaning of a word in one language, this book explores the networks to which the word belongs and seeks to understand how a network functions in one language by relating it to the networks of other languages.”

About the Author

Barbara Cassin is a distinguished French philosopher, philologist, and philhellene, renowned for her work in the fields of the history of philosophy, Greek tragedy, and psychoanalysis. Born on October 24, 1947, in Boulogne-Billancourt, France, Cassin has carved a niche for herself in the academic world, particularly through her exploration of the nuances and complexities of language.

Humboldt - 'On Language': On the Diversity of Human Language Construction and its Influence on the Mental Development of the Human Species

Details: Category: Bibliography

"On Language: On the Diversity of Human Language Construction and its Influence on the Mental Development of the Human Species" (1836):

This is an entirely new translation of one of the fundamental works in the development of the study of language. Published in 1836, it formed the general introduction to Wilhelm von Humboldt's three-volume treatise on the Kawi language of Java. It is the final statement of his lifelong study of the nature of language, and presents a survey of a great many languages, exploring ways in which their various grammatical structures make them more or less suitable as vehicles of thought and cultural development. Empirically wide-ranging - von Humboldt goes far beyond the Indo-European family of languages - it remains one of the most interesting and important attempts to draw philosophical conclusions from comparative linguistics.

Published posthumously, this book is Humboldt's key contribution to the philosophy of language. He explores the idea that language shapes thought and culture, and that the diversity of languages reflects the diversity of human mentalities. His ideas in this work laid the groundwork for what later would become the Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis.

About the Author:

Wilhelm von Humboldt (1767-1835) was a Prussian philosopher, linguist, government functionary, diplomat, and founder of the Humboldt University of Berlin. He is especially renowned for his work on the philosophy of language and his theory of education, which has had a significant influence on the education systems of various countries.

Catherine Vanier in conversation with Bernard Burgoyne 13/3/2011

Details: Category: Being a Psychoanalyst

Catherine Vanier in conversation with Bernard Burgoyne.

Adam Phillips: On Not Believing In Anything: Or, Why Freud?

Details: Category: Media

Adam Phillips

L. Sigmund Freud Lecture by Adam Phillips on the occasion of Sigmund Freud's birthday, 06.05.2023

Using Robert Musil's The Man Without Qualities and Thomas Mann's Doctor Faustus as some kind of context for Freud's work during the catastrophic cultural disillusionments of the First and Second World Wars, the lecture explores how psychoanalysis – and Freud's work in particular – addresses questions about the nature of belief, and what it might be about so-called human nature that we can go on believing in after such global destructiveness.

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