The geometry of differences

THE European vocabulary of philosophiesalso known as Dictionary of Untranslatablesis celebrating its tenth anniversary this year at the same time as it is being released in the United States in English translation. Barbara Cassin talks about the ambitions of the project, and the various translations in progress which are currently giving it a second life.


Barbara Cassin, French philosopher and philologist, led the collective enterprise of European vocabulary of philosophiessubtitled Dictionary of Untranslatables. The fruit of ten years of work during which around a hundred researchers worked to map the semantic variations undergone by philosophical concepts across languages ​​and contexts, this dictionary enjoyed remarkable success when it was released in 2004. Ten years later later, it was the subject of numerous translation projects, including an English translation which has just been completed with the publication, in the United States, of Dictionary of Untranslatables. A Philosophical Lexiconedited by Emily Apter, Jacques Lezra and Michael Wood.

Barbara Cassin by laviedesidees

Shooting and editing: A. Suhamy