Translating Philosophical Terms

This report discusses the translation of philosophical terms based on the Chinese translation of the first chapter and part of the second chapter of Humans,Animals,Machines:Blurring Boundaries.The main obstacles in the translation process are the identification and understanding of philosophical terms.I translated these terms under the guiding principles of retaining transparency and achieving consistency within both the text and the discipline.Methods adopted include but not limited to annotation,using widely accepted translations,and attaching another widely accepted translation and/or original English terms to one kind of translation.Generally those terms are divided into two groups,namely terms with and without standardized Chinese equivalents.Each group contains two subgroups under which there are several examples with detailed analysis.Through analysis,I found that translating philosophical terms is different from technical terms.A translator must first learn about background knowledge and fully comprehend the term before she/he could come up with a rather adequate translation.