To commemorate the fiftieth anniversary of the Nanzan Institute for Religion and Culture, the institute is launching a new book series on Japanese philosophy: The Nanzan Library of Japanese Philosophy. The first volume in the series features translations of Zettai mujunteki jikodōitsu, Nishida Kitarō’s quintessential work on the topic of the self. Through a multilingual translation in French, English, Italian, Spanish, Chinese, Portuguese, and German, the volume not only make’s this seminal work of Japanese philosophy accessible to an international audience but also explores how translation functions as a philosophical method. This panel consists of translators for the volume and is chaired by the series editor. Each translator will explain some of the challenges they encountered when translating what is arguably Nishida’s most difficult text into their respective native languages. The panel will then discuss new insights that can be gleamed from comparative translation of philosophical texts.
