Abstract
Abstract With its connotations of superior moral integrity, exceptional leadership qualities and expertise in the science of government, the modern ideal of statesmanship is most commonly traced back to the ancient Greek concept of πολιτικός (politikos) and the work of Plato and Aristotle in particular. Through an analysis of a large corpus of modern English translations of political works, built as part of the AHRC Genealogies of Knowledge project (http://genealogiesofknowledge.net/), this case-study aims to explore patterns that are specific to this translated discourse, with a view to understanding the crucial role played by translators in shaping its development and reception in society. It ultimately seeks to argue that the model of statesmanship presented in translations from ancient Greek is just as much a product of the receiving culture (and the social anxieties of Victorian Britain especially) as it is inherited from the classical world.
Highlights
Defining Statesmanship[1]We have a great many politicians in the country, perhaps as many as the country requires
Through an analysis of a large corpus of modern English translations of political works, built as part of the AHRC Genealogies of Knowledge project, this case-study aims to explore patterns that are specific to this translated discourse, with a view to understanding the crucial role played by translators in shaping its development and reception in society
It seeks to argue that the model of statesmanship presented in translations from ancient Greek is just as much a product of the receiving culture as it is inherited from the classical world
Summary
We have a great many politicians in the country, perhaps as many as the country requires. Via free access partial translation and commentary on this text, published in 1888.19 we have so far added nine full or partial retranslations of Thucydides’ History of the Peloponnesian War, five interpretations of Herodotus’ Histories and four of Aristotle’s Politics.[20] By studying the similarities and differences between these different readings of the foundational works of political and scientific theory, we hope to identify key moments of change in the history of concepts such as ‘democracy’, ‘citizenship’, ‘rights’, ‘experiment’, ‘observation’, ‘evidence’ and ‘proof’, and explore how translations and translators have participated in their transmission and transformation through time and across linguistic and cultural borders
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