Translation and terminology. Apropos of two Spanish versions of Dumarsais’ Logique (Madrid, 1800)

Abstract

Framed in the field of philosophical translation (lato sensu), this article deals with two different versions of Dumarsais’ Logique ([1769] 1797, Paris), both published in Madrid in 1800. We argue that these two Lógicas, which were translated by two different persons, had distinct purposes. This is evidenced by their respective bibliographical contexts and metatexts and by their translators’ use of different sets of Spanish terminological equivalents for the concepts that, as set out in the first few pages of his Logique, are key in Dumarsais’ theory of knowledge. In the first of these translations, which envisions logic as having an introductory role in the acquisition of scientific knowledge, terms are systematically borrowed from the source text. On the other hand, in the second translation, by J. M. Alea (1781-1826), we find an entirely different set of terminological equivalents, none of which coincide with those used in the first text. J. M. Alea’s terminological (and philosophical) infidelities may be explained by the translator’s desire to update Dumarsais’ theory of knowledge by using the alternative terminology of Condillac.