Philosophy Dictionary of ArgumentsHome
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| Translation, philosophy: philosophically interesting in the transmission of a text into another language is its indeterminateness - the fundamental impossibility of choosing between available competing versions, if the source language is too little known. See also Gavagai, idiolect, uncertainty of translation, indeterminacy, translation manual, ostension, pointing._____________Annotation: The above characterizations of concepts are neither definitions nor exhausting presentations of problems related to them. Instead, they are intended to give a short introduction to the contributions below. – Lexicon of Arguments. | |||
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Pierre Duhem on Translation - Dictionary of Arguments
I 173 Translation/Measuring/Duhem: The measurement methods are the vocabulary that allows translations. Who translates, falsifies. The Italians say: Tradutore tradittore. There is never a complete consistency between two texts which are translations of one another. The difference between the concrete facts observed by the physicists and the numerical symbols that he uses is extraordinary. I 174 A theoretical fact has nothing indefinite, nothing fluctuating. The body being studied is geometrically defined. Its edges are real lines, without thickness, its corners are real points without dimensions. Each point of a body corresponds to a temperature, and this temperature is, for each point, a number which is sharply defined by every other. This theoretical fact is opposed to the practical fact whose translation it is. Here nothing more can be seen of precision. The body is no longer a geometric one, but a concrete block, its edges jagged ridges, its points more or less broad, its temperature a medium one in a certain volume. It is also not the definite number, clearly distinguished from any other number. I 175 Nor could we explain that the temperature is exactly 10°, but only that it does not exceed a certain fraction of the degree which depends on the accuracy of the instrument. An infinite number of different theoretical facts can serve as a translation of the same practical fact. >Facts. I 178 When translating into concrete language, it is possible to obtain several facts which differ from each other because of the sensitivity of our instruments. E.g. the different values given by our thermodynamic formula v for the ice melting point may have a difference of one-tenth or more of a degree, while our thermometer measures one-hundredth of an inch. >Observation, >Observation language, >Theoretical terms, >Theoretical entities, >Theories. _____________Explanation of symbols: Roman numerals indicate the source, arabic numerals indicate the page number. The corresponding books are indicated on the right hand side. ((s)…): Comment by the sender of the contribution. Translations: Dictionary of Arguments The note [Concept/Author], [Author1]Vs[Author2] or [Author]Vs[term] resp. "problem:"/"solution:", "old:"/"new:" and "thesis:" is an addition from the Dictionary of Arguments. If a German edition is specified, the page numbers refer to this edition. |
Duh I P. Duhem La théorie physique, son objet et sa structure, Paris 1906 German Edition: Ziel und Struktur der physikalischen Theorien Hamburg 1998 |
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> Counter arguments against Duhem
> Counter arguments in relation to Translation
Ed. Martin Schulz, access date 2024-04-18