24 Jan 2009

The problem of transalation

The problem of popularization should take a different way, like Mexican corridos(songs), stories, feature films etc.,

If you pick up some topic, for instance, 'ethical domain' it has a it has a specific referent. The moment you translate it to Telugu, it picks up all garbage from Manu to Dharma Saastras. These concepts are loaded with specific semantic content. When you translate, the semantic content gets replaced with commonsense. Philosophy of languages pick up this topic. The semantic content of these concepts are part and parcel of a theory.

A theory is independent of natural language. It can be said to be in a formal language. However, some or another formal language becomes part of commonsense. For instance electron, gene etc., are part of specific theories. They are also part of today's natural language.

Imagine a future theory, which is better than current theory. In that case, the concept and its referent gets changed. However, the commonsense retains the old stuff. One can't use commonsense to criticize this new theory. That people have been using is not evidence for truth of any theory. Even the word theory has a specific reference. These things will be known in the course of studying theories about theories.

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