Anxieties of Democracy and Education: Naoko Saito'sAmerican Philosophy in Translation

American Philosophy, Translation and the Time of the Pandemic: A Rejoinder to Ruth Heilbronn and Adrian Skilbeck

“…One comment they raise is that ‘the central argument of the book would be more readily accessible with illustrations of some kind, such as case studies’ (Heilbronn and Skilbeck, 2020, p. 642). They are referring especially perhaps to some parts of the book where I discuss Cavell's ordinary language philosophy and where the argument is dense and inaccessible to those who are not familiar with what they call ‘the philosophical hinterland’ (p. 637).…”

“…In digital space, the imagining of the life is a new challenge, and the scope for this afforded by these circumstances is clear. Heilbronn and Skilbeck quote words from Richard Bernstein's Preface to the book: ‘imaginative translation [that] involves to‐and‐fro dialogue’ is a key to ‘facing up to the ineradicable contingency of human life’ and to ‘achiev[ing] moral perfection’ by overcoming obstacles (Bernstein quoted in Heilbronn and Skilbeck, 2020, p. 642). What, in virtual reality, might imaginative translation amount to?…”

“…The experience of translation helps us learn how to live with the gap, with the untranslatable and ungraspable. Acknowledgment in this Cavellian sense is needed all the more in conditions of virtual reality—where ‘penetrating’ the surface of the life of the other—in which Dewey manifestly failed in his visit to Japan (Heilbronn and Skilbeck, 2020, p. 636)—is from the beginning obstructed. We need to be more attuned to the sense of the strange and the foreign in virtual reality that is internal to the life of humans.…”

“…These cross borders in unprecedented ways, instilling a cosmopolitan commitment to common experience in ways that span national and cultural borders. Heilbronn and Skilbeck refer to my example of the wild goose as a symbol of becoming cosmopolitan, with no particular home but being at home everywhere (Heilbronn and Skilbeck, 2020, p. 640). The figure of the wild goose is intended a way of achieving the common.…”

“…Finally, but most importantly, the purchase of the idea of beautiful knowledge presented in the book can be seen more sharply at the time of the pandemic. Heilbronn and Skilbeck refer to my remark that ‘Education for beautiful knowledge drives teachers and students into the obscure, that is into the uncertain, the unknown, the dark’ (Saito, 2019, p. 146 in Heilbronn and Skilbeck, 2020, p. 641). I would only like to add that attention to the particularity of words is the essential condition of producing beautiful knowledge.…”