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/lit/ - Literature

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12015124 No.12015124 [Reply] [Original]

How many goddamn languages do you need to know to get into philosophy? So far Ancient Greek, Latin, German, French, and Italian, all seem obvious to me, what else?

>> No.12015132

>>12015124
Stop, you're just gonna hurt both of us.

>> No.12015139

the smartest man
on earth
with no language
conducting
philosophy perfect every time
No thoughts to think

nice
NICE

>> No.12015144

Chinese, Japanese, Polish, Hebrew, and Russian

>> No.12015150

You need to know AT LEAST 10 languages to be considered human.

t. 75 language hyperglot

>> No.12015151

>>12015132
What do you mean? PLEASE don't make fun of me

>> No.12015161

>>12015124
>So far Ancient Greek, Latin, German, French, and Italian, all seem obvious to me, what else?

You forgot English.

>> No.12015197

Ancient Sanskrit, Ancient Chinese, Hebrew (ancient), Aramaic, Nahuati (if you have access to the banished manuscripts). With these you can have a little introduction to philosophy.

>> No.12015298

>>12015151
I was just being silly, and I'm not making fun. I know exactly what you mean. I finally took initiative and started going through Wheelock's Latin. I'm actually having a lot of fun with the learning experience, and it's liberating being able to go at my own pace.

>> No.12015303

>>12015139
How the fuck did he do it? I wish I got to experience the bicameral mind; this conscious shit is whack.

>> No.12015310

Spanish

>> No.12015657

>>12015124
amerrrican

>> No.12015670

>>12015150
Do programming languages count?

>> No.12015966

Ancient Greek if you want to study ancient philosophy, Latin if you want to study Mediaeval philosophy and a few modern texts, German, French, and English if you want to study contemporary philosophy. You could Spanish to study Vitoria and Ortega y Gasset, Italian to study Gentile and Gramsci, Russian to study Lenin and Bakhtin. Danish to study Kierkegaard, Arabic to study the Al-Farabi, Ibn Sinna, Al-Ghazali, and Ibn Rushd. Sanskrit to study the Vedas, Bhaghavad Gita, Sutras, Classical Chinese to study Zhuangzi, Laozi, Confucius, and Mengzi, but they wouldn't be as fruitful or useful for understanding stuff being written right now.
Good translations will capture what the original writer was speaking of, even if they don't exactly reproduce every single particle or irregularity they might've used.
Certain great philosophers, like St. Augustine, Aquinas, and Marx spoke not one word of Greek, and relied on translations to become acquainted with Plato and Aristotle's works, but I wouldn't say they understood them any less than someone who read them in their original language. I've even had philosophy professors who didn't speak German, but could still explain Kant much better than a German speaker like me could.
It's better to rely on great translations written in a language which you understand perfectly than it is to try to read something in a language you've only got near-basic knowledge on.

>> No.12016165

>>12015124
Plus Sanskrit and Chinese.

>> No.12016174

>>12015124
Traditional chinese, tibetan and sanskrit is a must.

>> No.12016194

>>12015298
>>12015966

Ha! Nerd!

>> No.12017291

>>12015124
German, maybe Greek. That's about it.

>> No.12017303

>>12017291
>not learning Sanskrit and Latin
>not learning Na’vi to write a treatise about the dangers of interstellar imperialism on the indigenous symbiotic ecosystem

Are you even trying?

>> No.12017307

>>12015124
Latin and Greek, and nothing else. Imagine not spitefully reading translations of modern yurofag tongues

>> No.12017313

>>12017307
>Latin and Greek
Hol shit get a load of this guy
>doesn’t mention Dothraki
>has no plans to write an examination of the ethical implications of the use of dragons in the rat race for the arbitrary seat which supposedly controls the entirety of the seven realms

Fuuuck man I’m surrounded by brainlets

>not learning French to write a tragedy about the slightly overweight yet radiant-faced baker give you a disturbed meloncholy look from the inside of the bakery, indicating that all the baguettes were sold

>not learning Cave Painting to do a 21st century homage to the Red Hands on a medium of gallium etched with zinc and suspended in ice water

You anons sicken me

>> No.12017352

>>12015966
>better to rely on great translations written in a language which you understand perfectly than it is to try to read something in a language you've only got near-basic knowledge on
Yeah, I never understood the "you have to learn a language from scratch every time you want to read a foreign work" meme.
Do people really think they're going to detect the subtleties and voice with a cursory knowledge of the language? Most philosophy is hard enough in your native tongue.

>> No.12018187

>>12015670
For each programming language learnt, one must learn one actual language in order to offset the intelligence loss.

>> No.12019078

>>12017352
It's not for philosophy, it's for literature/ poetry. I do Greek Latin and English and always laugh at the "whose homer should I read" threads because poetry is one hundred percent intranslatable

>> No.12020006

>>12019078
It can still nevertheless not be denied that a translation, like Pope's Iliad or Ezra Pound's Cathay can be greatly valued on par with an original work.

>> No.12020115

>>12015124
Any single one language with loanwords where necessary. Your thread is stupid and you should feel bad.

>> No.12020218

>>12015966
>but I wouldn't say they understood them any less than someone who read them in their original language

Yeah I kinda disagree with this. From my experience, the vocabulary and the way the ancients tied the ideas together gives a huge insight into how they perceived the world, as well as how they apprehended politics and religion, often undistinguished. All of this is lost in translation. Etymology also helps a lot.

For example, the very first words of the Res Gesta go: « Rerum gestarum divi Augusti, quibus orbem terra[rum] imperio populi Rom. subiecit, [...] exemplar subiectum. »
A translation would say that « The deeds done by Divine Augustus, who submitted the whole Earth to the power of the Romans, [...] are written below. ». But you lose the fact that he implies the earth to be round, and that he quite literally means that the earth was put UNDER the power to command, not of the Romans, but of the people of Rome, which is different.

You could work and talk about Aristotle's Metaphysics without knowing Greek but only in an incidental, marginal or subordinate way. You NEED to understand the concepts, which are obviously primordial in philosophy, in his language. Metaphysics literally just means « that which comes after physics ».

But yeah, I would argue that it's a bad idea to chose a work of philosophy at random and then learn the language from scratch just to read it in the OG language. I can agree with you that it's dumb to do that. You'd rather go the other way around, and chose a work within reach of where you're headed.

>> No.12020581

>>12015124
Just Greek.

>> No.12020600

>reading primary sources at all
Get over yourself kid, there's no way you are either smart or educated enough to get anything out of them anyway.

>> No.12020601

>>12020600
Name two reasons why reading the primary sources of Plato or Aristotle is a bad idea

>> No.12020610

>>12020601
You are most likely literally too stupid to know what the fuck they are talking about and likely have an incredibly weak understanding of greek history and culture.

>> No.12020619

>knowledge is software
>download into my hardware
>breakthru

'OK Computer' is a negative metaphor.

>I know jujitsu!

>> No.12020631

>>12020600
imagine being like this

>> No.12020669

>>12020631
You mean not being a pseudointellectual with delusions of grandeur?

>> No.12020755
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12020755

>no-one's said quenya

>> No.12020781

>>12015966
I disagree. It is better to learn the language than risk a poor translation. I don't care how good the translation is, it does not do the original text justice.