Aristotle in China: Language, Categories and Translation

by Robert Wardy

Overview

This book considers the relation between language and thought. Robert Wardy explores this huge topic by analyzing linguistic relativism with reference to a Chinese translation of Aristotle's Categories. He addresses some key questions, such as, do the basic structures of language shape the major thought patterns of its native speakers? Could philosophy be guided and constrained by the language in which it is done? And does Aristotle survive rendition into Chinese intact? Wardy's answers will fascinate philosophers, Sinologists, classicists, linguists and anthropologists, and make a major contribution to the scholarly literature.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780521028479
Publisher:	Cambridge University Press
Publication date:	11/02/2006
Series:	Needham Research Institute Studies , #2
Edition description:	Reissue
Pages:	184
Product dimensions:	7.48(w) x 9.61(h) x 0.43(d)

Table of Contents

Preface; Part I. The China Syndrome: Language, Logical Form, Translation: 1. Introduction; 2. Guidance and constraint; 3. On the very idea of translation; 4. Case-study 1: conditionals; 5. Case-study 2: Chinese is a list; 6. Logical form; 7. Case-study 3: being; 8. Case-study 4: truth; 9. Case-study 5: nouns and ontology; 10. Conclusion; Part II. Aristotelian whispers: 11. Introduction; 12. What's in a name?; 13. Disputation, discrimination, inference; 14. The need for logic; 15. Finite and infinite; 16. The simple and the complex; 17. All the things there are; 18. How many questions? 19. Relatively speaking; 20. Particular and general; 21. Translating the untranslatable; Epilogue; Glossary; References; Index.

Editorial Reviews

'… we in Chinese studies clearly owe a considerable debt to Robert Wardy, and hope that he will find other examples of cultural intercommunication between the classical tradition of Western philosophy and China with which to beguile our increasingly rare moments of reflection.' Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society

From the Publisher

Wardy (philosophy and classics, University of Cambridge) develops a reading of the , a 17th-century Chinese translation of Aristotle's , and uses it as the focal point in a broader discussion concerning the relation between language and thought. Specifically, he considers the influence of linguistic structures on the thought-patterns of native speakers, the limits language imposes on philosophy, the factors shaping translation, and the form Aristotle's theories take when rendered in Chinese. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

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