L’Übersetzen comme articulation interne du système encyclopédique. Hegel et Novalis en perspective

Abstract

The topic of translation in Hegel can be analyzed within different perspectives. We can start from his ambition to make philosophy speak in German. We can refer to his Nuremberg writings that illustrate the interest of translating for the work of Bildung. We can also study the concept of Übersetzen in the doctrine of essence and show how it contributes to articulate the encyclopedic system. It is this latter perspective that is at the core of this article. The activity of Übersetzen as an instrument of reflexivity in language is put into perspective with the romantic conception and use of translation (by Novalis especially). Our thesis is that in Hegel, translating a discourse into another one does not only convey a ‘passage’ from one discourse to another. The work of translation reveals the implicit ground of each discourses. But as the ground of any special discourse takes place into a process of meaning’s concretization, the translation of one discourse into another one in the Encyclopedia of Philosophical Sciences follows an order which is linked to the more or less ‘developed’ character of the idea that articulates the meaning of a scientific discourse. By studying the notion of Übersetzen from the point of view of a logical process, Hegel distinguishes himself from the Romantics, who make themselves the apostles of disorder to liberate the infinity of forms that convey our tendency to relate to the absolute.