Introduction

This Handbook examines the relationships between translation studies and philosophy. Philosophy is one of the oldest intellectual practices known to humanity. Translation studies, by contrast, is a young discipline – a 1972 paper by James Holmes ([1972] 2004) is often viewed as its starting point – although translation as a practice predates even philosophy. The two disciplines are contingently linked because, as Jonathan Rée notes: ‘no bookshelves are more heavily stocked with foreign books and translations than those of the philosopher’ (2001: 231). However, Rée argues that the connection goes deeper: ‘European philosophy has always been written with several languages in mind; and it has to be read, and translated, with multilingual eyes as well’ (2001: 235). For Lawrence Venuti, translation is philosophy’s ‘dark secret’ (1998: 115). The present volume shows how contemporary scholars are responding to the growing realisation that those working in translation studies and those working in philosophy have much to say to each other (see the study by Andrew Benjamin ([1989] 2015)). It will therefore help to establish dialogue between the fields as a norm, as well as being an important work of reference.