Translating Nishida’s The Issue of Consciousness (Workshop on Translation in Japanese Philosophy)

Abstract:

Even though Nishida Kitarō arguably is the most significant Japanese philosopher of the 20th century, only a small fragment of his oeuvre has been translated into English. In this workshop, we take an in-depth look at the current state and practice of Nishida translation and discuss some of the philosophical ideas related to consciousness in “What Does Consciousness Mean?” The workshop consists of three parts. In the first part, we provide a brief overview of the development of Nishida’s philosophy and consider what parts of his oeuvre have been translated. In the second part, we base ourselves in an on-going translation project of Nishida’s 1920 The Issue of Consciousness (Ishiki no Mondai 意識の問題) to discuss some of the challenges faced by the translator when rendering Nishida into English. In the third part, we take a close look at a draft translation of the first chapter of The Issue of Consciousness—titled “What Does Consciousness Mean?” (“Ishiki towa nani wo imi suru ka” 意識とは何を意味するか)—to evaluate the philosophical significance of the text and consider some challenges with its interpretation.

Delivered in English.
All are welcome.