+
From: Teemu K <teemuta@xxxxxxxxx>
+
Date: Fri, 3 Sep 2010 17:28:41 +0300
Dear all,
and especially all the French-reading friends of Canguilhem's work.
Apologies to those who find this too off-topic on this list.
I am currently finishing a translation of certain key passages of
Canguilhem's Normal & Pathological from French to Finnish. One term turned
out to be a bit problematic: volant régulateur.
"La santé est un volant régulateur des possibilités de réaction." (p 122,
2nd edition of "Essai", 1950)
The English translation by Fawcett:
""Health is a regulatory fly-wheel of the possibilities of reaction." (p
116, 1978 edition by Reidel)
A little bit of background: this passage begins with the idea that health is
security for the present and assurance for the future; it continues with how
life can, when necessary, surpass the expectations, ending elegantly with
the sentence: "Etre en bonne santé c'est pouvoir tomber malade et s'en
relever, c'est un luxe biologique."
So my question is about this volant regulateur: how should it be understood
& translated to English: steering wheel? fly-wheel (=volant d'inertie) as in
Fawcett's translation? safety margin? regulatory mechanism?
Thanks.
best,
Teemu Kemppainen
University of Helsinki
