China News Service, Beijing, June 16 (Reporter Ying Ni) The latest Chinese translation of Kant's philosophical core work "Critique of Pure Reason" was recently launched by the Commercial Press.
The rare thing about this translation is that Professor Han Linhe, a professor of the Department of Philosophy at Peking University, drew on the methods of organizing and commenting on ancient Chinese books, and gave a research commentary of nearly 100,000 words.
The "Criticism of Pure Reason" (Han Linhe's new translation) publication symposium was held at the Commercial Press on the 15th in the form of a combination of online and offline.
Kant is one of the most important and far-reaching philosophers in the West. He has a foundational significance for modern Western thought. He used critical philosophy to complete a "Copernican revolution" in human thought.
Kant's philosophical achievements are concentrated in the "Three Criticisms", and the "Critique of Pure Reason" as the "First Criticism" is the core of Kant's philosophy.
There are at least 10 English translations of Critique of Pure Reason and at least 12 Japanese translations.
In 1931, Mr. Hu Renyuan took the lead in publishing the first Chinese translation of "Critique of Pure Reason" in the Commercial Press, and in the middle of the 20th century, Mr. Lan Gongwu's translation came out.
The translations of the two gentlemen have influenced generations of scholars.
Since then, famous scholars such as Mou Zongsan, Wei Zhuomin, Deng Xiaomang, Li Qiuling, and Wang Jiuxing have successively launched new translations, which have played a major role in promoting the study of Kant's philosophy in the Chinese academic community.
The latest translation of Critique of Pure Reason was translated by Han Linhe, a professor at the Institute of Foreign Philosophy and Department of Philosophy at Peking University.
This time, he used the second edition ("B edition") revised by Kant himself in 1787 as the base, supplemented by the first edition in 1781 ("A edition"), which is a translation of the original edition of the Critique of Pure Reason.
During the revision process, the Academy of Sciences edition edited by Benno Erdmann and the Philosophy Series edition edited by Raymund Schmidt were further selected as the main "collaboration editions", and other German texts and English translations were referred to. The full text has been revised comprehensively and meticulously.
A rare feature of this translation is that Han Linhe draws on the arrangement and commentary methods of ancient Chinese books, and gives a research commentary of nearly 100,000 words.
These annotations include: analyzing multiple editions, examining typographical and typographical errors in historical editions; discovering and correcting Kant's own clerical errors; prompting German text editors and English translators to modify some key words, and Different understandings and possible misunderstandings caused by these factors; detailed explanations were made for some vague expressions in the original text, carefully studied the terms referred to by pronouns in the text, and listed and compared the controversial parts; Some popular Chinese Kant terms are determined to explain the reasons why different translators use different translation methods; because Professor Han Linhe has both a solid foundation in British empiricism and an academic background in contemporary logic and analytic philosophy, there are also some places in the notes to indicate The source of thought of the concepts used by Kant and the inspiration for later generations.
These meticulous works not only help readers to grasp the Critique of Pure Reason more deeply, but also provide a contemporary philosophical perspective oriented to German classical philosophy.
Wang Bo, vice president of Peking University, pointed out that Professor Han Linhe's translation of Critique of Pure Reason is the eighth Chinese translation.
On the one hand, the translator carefully selected the original text, completed the work of "reciting", and showed sufficient respect for Kant and his thoughts.
On the other hand, the Chinese-speaking world needs to overcome language and time barriers to understand Western culture.
Professor Han's translation overcame the hurdle and completed the "translation" work.
The translation is beautiful and fluent, its tone and sense of language are in harmony with ours, and it shows enough awe to the readers.
Professor Han's translation will undoubtedly help readers in the Chinese-speaking world get closer to such an obscure book.
Professor Li Qiuling, a famous Kant research expert and translator of the Chinese version of the Complete Works of Kant, said that the birth of the new translation of the Critique of Pure Reason is a major event in the academic world.
Translating academic works is not a simple language conversion problem, it needs to be supported by in-depth research and the accumulation of predecessors.
Han Linhe's new translation not only balances many conventional terms in the academic world, but also gives detailed annotations, and even indicates the source of some key words in different versions and translations, giving readers a lot of convenience.
Xie Dikun, a famous Kant research expert, pointed out that Professor Han Linhe set a precedent for translating Kant's classical philosophy from the perspective of analytical philosophy, which is unique in methodology.
The sophisticated footnotes are impressive, allowing readers and peers to see the research and thinking in it.
In addition, the launch of the new translation helps to deepen Chinese philosophy and inspires us to think about how Chinese philosophy develops in the integration with world philosophy.
Gu Qing, Secretary of the Party Committee and Executive Director of the Commercial Press, said in his speech that Professor Han Linhe's work for the new translation will undoubtedly help Chinese scholars to understand the Critique of Pure Reason, an excellent achievement of human civilization, and contribute to Chinese philosophy. Contribute to the prosperity of the social sciences.
The launch of Professor Han Linhe's new translation in the Commercial Press has responded to the expectations of readers. In the future, the Commercial Press will continue to pay attention to the needs of readers and build a good platform for the dissemination of knowledge and the communication of ideas.
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