Semantic antipluralism: How to translate terms in philosophy

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Notes

¹Nick Allen, in The Ethics of War, edited by R. Sorabji and D. Rodin (Ashgate, 2006) 148.

²The relevant pairs might include the following: English/French, English/Ulster Scots, Scottish Gaelic/Irish Gaelic, Somerset/Devon English, the language(s) of Professor Smith/Jones in the same Philosophy Department.

³This comment may seem unfair to Wittgenstein and Davidson, both of whom enjoyed deep knowledge and appreciation of Europe-wide culture. However, this catholic attitude did not animate their strictly philosophical work; and in many of their followers the parochialism is yet more marked and pervasive.

⁴For this discussion, see Aristotle MetaphysicsΔ2.

⁵Above all, in Physics B7–8.

⁶ MetaphysicsΔ8.

⁷This view was argued by W. Charlton, Aristotle's Physics I, II (Oxford, 1970) 56–7, to whom I am indebted.

⁸For example, M. J. Woods, ‘Problems in Metaphysics Z, Chapter 13’, in J. M. E. Moravcsik, Aristotle (Anchor Books, 1967) 215–38.

⁹J. L. Ackrill, A New Aristotle Reader (Oxford, 1987) xii.

¹⁰An earlier version of this paper was given to a very multicultural, well-informed conference of philosophers organised by the Vietnamese Academy of Social Sciences in Hanoi in 2006. The conference was also an occasion for the annual meeting of the FISP Steering Committee. In the discussion I benefited particularly from comments by Bill McBride, Keith Lehrer and William Sweet.