Peter Singer’s Translation of Giest
Brandi Molnes
Peter Singer begins his explanation of why he chooses mind instead of spirit by explaining the translation in general. He explains first that that giest can mean either in German. It is used to explain mental illness and also to refer to the Holy Ghost in that language. Singer explains that Hegel tends to use it both ways, but he felt that would make it difficult for us to understand. Singer states that he felt like he had three choices when approaching the translation. 1) Use mind throughout 2) Use spirit throughout 3) Use whichever seems appropriate in context. Singer rejects the third because it is obviously important to Hegel what he calls geist, not withstanding the different aspects that emerge in his writing. Hegel wanted you to understand geist and to do that you must choose which to apply. He explains that it makes the excerpt of the Phenomenology easier to understand if you use the same word and he further explains that using mind makes giest easier to understand. When he began this translation Signer assumed he would use spirit because that had been the choice of virtually all recent Hegel translators, but changed his mind when he realized the connotations it would bring up for English speaking readers. He felt that the term was predjuice readers and slant there understanding of the text. For us the term spirit brings up ghost, religious, or mystical images. This is what Singer felt would alter the understanding of the work. He does not want us to assume from the beginning that Hegel’s philosophy is based on a superstitious view of the world. I think this was a great choice on his part. It would have been easy to translate ...