Abstract

This dissertation contains three distinct texts: 1) an investigation of twentieth-century German philosopher Hans Blumenberg’s metaphorology, which develops a theory of translation based on Blumenberg’s theoretical insights into metaphor, 2) a translation of Blumenberg's The Laughter of the Thracian Woman: A Protohistory of Theory, and 3) a critical apparatus for the translation, consisting of a critical introduction, translator’s preface, and annotations. Through their interplay, the assembled texts both exhibit and analyze the ambiguities generated in philosophy texts when metaphoric images substitute for explanations, when polysemous German philosophical language is translated into relatively monosemous English, and when Continental European philosophers omit references to key interlocutors. The first dissertation chapter outlines the development of Blumenberg’s metaphorology while situating it in the context of the intellectual movements that contributed to it, particularly the work of Ludwig Landgrebe, Edmund Husserl, Martin Heidegger, Ernst Cassirer, and Arnold Gehlen. The second chapter explicates claims that Blumenberg implicitly makes about Plato, Heidegger, and Arendt through translated excerpts, allusions, and conspicuous omissions in The Laughter of the Thracian Woman. The third chapter discusses metaphor’s philosophical value by examining translation choices in several English language translations of German philosophy; the examples center around the images of stream (Strom), ground (Grund), and nearness (das Naheliegende) in works by Husserl, Heidegger, and Blumenberg respectively. The annotated translation marks places in Blumenberg’s writing where his own metaphors elude translation. The Laughter of the Thracian Woman is an extended metaphorological analysis of the humorous anecdote about Thales of Miletus from Plato’s Theaetetus: as Thales is walking around watching the stars, he trips and falls into a well. This anecdote recurs diachronically in European philosophical, theological, and literary works. Divergent readings reveal authors’ period-specific values regarding absorption in curiosity, risk aversion, and the task of philosophy. Blumenberg argues that this anecdote metaphorically expresses notions (such as “common sense”) that cannot be adequately modeled or demonstrated, but which prove indispensable to philosophy. This dissertation applies this premise of Blumenberg’s metaphorology to translation theory. By making metaphoric language more visible, translation can contribute powerfully to the philosophical task of distinguishing concepts from metaphors.