Ontological Positions

Our aim in this foundational chapter is to explore some of the main ways that ontology – that is to say the study of being – is relevant to translation. We begin by considering the importance of being in broad terms and the peculiar difficulty of attempting to reflect on it directly. This is followed by reflection on a series of major concepts in the history of Western ontology: categories and categorization; sameness, difference and identity; change and stability; being and non-being. The final section introduces three major traditions of ontological thought: substance ontology, process ontology, and flat ontology. We aim to show throughout that the ontological positions we adopt have significant implications for how we think about translation and that there is much to be gained from explicit reflection on questions of being.