Inhoudsopgave:
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What am I trying to accomplish through the exercise which I have undertaken, namely, to examine the philosophy of religion in the light of primal religions? If to choose someone elseâs expression to characterize oneâs own intellectual endeavour is an indication of oneâs own lack of imagination, then I must plead guilty to that charge; but not to that of lack of gratitude, for I have to thank Robin Horton for describing, better than I can, what I have attempted in the book. It is an exercise in what he calls âtranslational understanding. â I quote him now: By âtranslational understandingâ, I mean the kind of understanding of a particular thought-system that results from the successful translation of the language and conceptual system that embody it into terms of a language and conceptual system that currently enjoy âworldâ status. In talking of translation, of course, I am not just talking of the provision of dictionary equivalents for individual words or sentences. I am talking about finding a âworld-languageâ equivalent for a whole realm of discourse, and of showing, in âworld-languageâ terms, what the point of that realm of discourse is in the life of the people who use it. Translation, in this broader sense, can be very arduous. There may be no realm of discourse in the âworldâ language that exactly fits the bill. We may have to bend and refashion existing realms, and even redefine their guiding intentions. |
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