Laurie Zoloth - The Ethics of Translation; Power, Exchange, and Hospitality

Translation may be described as the central act of scholarship across a variety of disciplines: science, theology, philosophy and ethics.   Scholars are often told that a subsidiary task of all research is translation: basic science needs to  ‘translate’ its theory into understandable public language, or to ‘translate’ research into clinical applications, and theologians and philosophers are urged to ‘translate’ philosophy into political and social policy.  Bioethicists ‘translate’ abstractions into pragmatic decisions. What ethical judgments are at stake when we ‘translate’?  What is ‘lost in translation’ when theories of human agency are translated into practices, or when practices are re-inscribed, or translated into theory?  Where does the power in the relationship reside?  This short presentation will explore both the underlying moral appeals in play when scholars ‘translate’ and raise questions about how to do so with both justice and generosity.