“The lyf so short, the craft so long to lerne.”
― Geoffrey Chaucer, The Parliament of Birds
Let’s talk about philosophy and language.
To understand Nietzsche, do I have to know the German language?
To understand Rousseau, do I need to speak and write French?
To understand Plato, how important is it that I know Ancient Greek?
To understand The Upanishads, do i need to learn Sanskrit?
To understand the ethics of artificial intelligence, do I need to be able to program in Python?
And to understand Heidegger, do I need to be fluent in both German and Ancient Greek?
As I get older, and the balance of my lyf gets shorter, Chaucer’s quote applies to me more each day. To what extent should I be dependent on translation and interpretation of others, and to what extent should I delve into the original language of the philosopher-creators?