Interdisciplinarity as language’s Aufhebung: a problem for the philosophy of translation

Silvia Pieroni

doi:10.4396/06202305

Silvia Pieroni

DOI: https://doi.org/10.4396/06202305

Keywords: Aufhebung, Hegel, dialectic, speculative constellation, philosophy of translation

Abstract

This paper aims to answer the main methodological challenge issued to scientific research by the interdisciplinary approach: the translation of the technical language among single sciences. To this end, I will consider the case of the German term Aufhebung, whose role within philosophical translation is paradigmatic. Its semantic history, in fact, relies both on internal translation processes of philosophy and on external translation processes between philosophy and other fields of studies. Especially, I will discuss two of these translations: first, the use of the verb aufheben in Hegel’s dialectic and its derivation from Pauline theology through the mediation of Luther’s translation of the Bible; second, Adorno’s use of Aufhebung in the discussion on the form of philosophy as opposed to speculative Konstellation. Through the polyvalence of the word Aufheben, both object and subject of philosophical translation, some ethical and aesthetic aspects of the interdisciplinary work as well as of the role that philosophy can play in current scientific research will be highlighted.

References

Adorno, Theodor W. (1966), Negative Dialektik, Suhrkamp, Frankfurt a.M. (Dialettica negativa, trad. it. di C.A. Donolo, Einaudi, Torino 1970).

Agamben, Giorgio (2000), Il tempo che resta. Un commento alla Lettera ai Romani, Bollati Boringhieri, Torino.

Berman, Antoine (1984), L’épreuve de l’étranger. Culture et traduction dans l’Allemagne romantique, Gallimard, Paris.

Bigarelli, Alberto (1998), Nuovo Testamento, greco, latino, italiano, San Paolo, Cinisello Balsamo.

Bourgeois, Bernard (1970), Hegel à Francfort. Judaïsme, christianisme, hégélianisme, Vrin, Paris.

Büttgen, Philippe (2004), Aufheben, in Cassin, Barbara (ed.), Vocabulaire européen des philosophies: Dictionnaire des intraduisibles, Seuil, Paris, pp. 152-156.

Canullo, Carla (2019), «La traduzione come momento di pace. La sfida felice di Domenico Jervolino», in Critical Hermeneutics, vol. 2, n. 2, pp. 151-175.

Cortella, Lucio (2011), La dialettica hegeliana e la sua radice linguistica, in Dreon, Roberta, Paltrinieri, Gian Luigi, Perissinotto, Luigi (eds), Nelle parole del mondo. Scritti in onore di Mario Ruggenini, Mimesis, Milano-Udine, pp. 557-572.

Charlston, David (2020), Translation and Hegel’s philosophy: a transformative, socionarrative approach to A.V. Miller’s cold-war retranslations, Routledge, London-New York.

Chiereghin, Franco (1996), «Nota sul modo di tradurre “aufheben”», in Verifiche, vol. 25, n. 2-3, pp. 233-249.

Derrida, Jacques (1992), Points de suspension, Galilée, Paris.

Guanzini, Isabella (2014), «Katargein and Aufheben: Pauline Origins of the Hegelian Dialectic?», in Annali di Scienze Religiose, vol. 7, pp. 347-371.

Guanzini, Isabella (2013), Il giovane Hegel e Paolo: l’amore fra politica e messianismo, Vita e Pensiero, Milano.

Hadot, Pierre (1981), Exercices spirituels et philosophie antique, Etudes augustiniennes, Paris.

Hegel, G.W.F. (2014), Frühe Schriften II, in Gesammelte Werke, Bd. 2, hrsg. von W. Jaeschke, Meiner, Hamburg (Scritti giovanili, a cura di E. Mirri, Orthotes, Napoli-Salerno 2015, pp. 431-698).

Hegel, G.W.F. (1992), Enzyklopädie der philosophischen Wissenschaften im Grundrisse (1830), in Gesammelte Werke, Bd. 20, hrsg. von W. Bonsiepen und H.-C. Lucas, Meiner, Hamburg (Enciclopedia delle scienze filosofiche in compendio, a cura di V. Verra, 3 voll., UTET, Torino 2004).

Hegel, G.W.F. (1984), Wissenschaft der Logik. Erster Band. Die Lehre vom Sein (1832), in Gesammelte Werke, Bd. 21, hrsg. von F. Hogemann und W. Jaeschke, Meiner, Hamburg (Scienza della logica, 2 voll., a cura di A. Moni, rivista da C. Cesa, Laterza, Roma-Bari 1981, vol. 1).

Hegel, G.W.F. (1969), Briefe von und an Hegel. Band I: 1785-1812, hrsg. von J. Hoffmeister, Meiner, Hamburg.

Hegel, G.W.F. (1968), Differenz des Fichte’schen und Schelling’schen Systems der Philosophie, in Gesammelte Werke, Bd. 4, hrsg. von H. Buchner und O. Pöggeler, Meiner, Hamburg, pp. 1-92 (Primi scritti critici, a cura di R. Bodei, Mursia, Milano 1971, pp. 1-120).

Hrnjez, Saša (2021), Traduzione come concetto. Universalità, negatività, tempo, Padova University Press, Padova.

Jervolino, Domenico (2008), Per una filosofia della traduzione, Morcelliana, Brescia.

Iannelli, Francesca, Olivier, Alain P. (2022), «En traduisant Hegel. Traducendo Hegel. Aesthetic theory and/in Translation practice», in Studi di estetica, vol. 22, n. 1, pp. 157-197.

Illetterati, Luca (2018), «Sul concetto di filosofia: le aporie della scientificità», in Giornale di metafisica, vol. 40, n. 2, pp. 448-471.

Illetterati, Luca, Miolli, Giovanna (2022), The Relevance of Hegel’s Concept of Philosophy. From Classical German Philosophy to Contemporary Metaphilosophy, Bloomsbury, London-New York.

Nuzzo, Angelica (2006), The Language of Hegel’s Speculative Philosophy, in Surber, Jere O’N. (ed.), Hegel and language, SUNY, Albany, pp. 75-94.

Nuzzo, Angelica (1992), Logica e sistema. Sull’idea hegeliana di filosofia, Pantograf, Genova.

Pettoello, Renato (2010), «Questioni di stile e d’altro ancora», in Annali della Facoltà di Lettere e Filosofia dell’Università di Milano, vol. 63, n. 3, pp. 369-383.

Richter, Gerhard (2011), «Die Erbschaft der Konstellation. Adorno und Hegel», in MLN, vol. 126, n. 3, pp. 446-470.

Rorty, Richard (1967), The Linguistic Turn: Recent Essays in Philosophical Method, University of Chicago Press, Chicago (La svolta linguistica. Tre saggi su linguaggio e filosofia, trad. di S. Velotti, Garzanti, Milano 1994).

Samoyault, Tiphaine (2020), Traduction et violence, Seuil, Paris.

Siani, Alberto (2020), Modern Philosophy and Philosophical Modernity: Hegel’s Metaphilosophical Commitment, in Chotaš, Jiří, Matějčková, Tereza (eds), An Ethical Modernity? Hegel’s Concept of Ethical Life Today, Brill, Boston, pp. 191-203.

Simon, Josef (1966), Das Problem der Sprache bei Hegel, Kohlhammer, Stuttgart.

Stewart, Martin (2006), «Adorno’s Conception of the Form of Philosophy», in Diacritics, vol. 36, n. 1, pp. 48-63.

Venuti, Lawrence (1995), The Translator’s Invisibility: A history of translation, Routledge, London (L’invisibilità del traduttore. Una storia della traduzione, trad. it. di M. Guglielmi, Armando, Roma 1999).