Translation in a hermeneutical context
transforming culture and human nature through ethics
pp. 217-229
in: Jan Selmer Methi, Andrei Sergeev, Basia Nikiforova (eds), Borderology: cross-disciplinary insights from the border zone, Berlin, Springer, 2019Abstract
The paper looks at a number of problems connected with the ethical dimension of hermeneutical practices. It opens with a discussion of the opposition between the traditional approach to translation ethics which posits a "code of ethics' for translators, and the approach put forward in a number of studies (V. Bibikhin, A. Berman, J.-L. Cordonnier, P. Ricœur, etc.) which envisage the translation phenomenon in its entirety. The author suggests that, whereas the former approach is narrowly deontological, the latter marks a turn towards virtue ethics, opening a new perspective on the problem of translation ethics. This turn implies a view of translation as a (trans)formative process which affects the recipient community's attitude to their own language and culture. The most fundamental virtue inherent in translation is identified as respect for the Other in their irreducible alterity. It is also argued that the idea of virtue ethics is applicable to other hermeneutical situations. This highlights the importance of the formative aspect of hermeneutical experience (H.-G. Gadamer). With ethics of difference and diversity as one of its guiding principles, hermeneutical experience may be expected to promote tolerance and respect for the Other.
