Abstract

Systematic studies of translation which follow the scientific profile of theories and seek to individuate the methodological features that should be attributed to practical activity, the multiplicity of directions and solutions of logical and philosophical theories of language, the many facets of semiotics, the plurality of anthropological approaches tied into the multiform horizons of hermeneutical reflection, combine to increase the speculative problem of translation, which takes shape in the nexus between identity and otherness. These issues are examined in relation to B. Lonergan: not just regarding the experience of translating Insight but also through analysing the difficulty of translation which Longergan himself had to face in studying Aquinas. In particular, there is discussion of the meaning of the word 'insight' as it was used in Verbum. The contents of the word as used there help to explain its meaning in Insight, while at the same time we can recognise the renewed and stronger form of the word in the latter work. Translation of the adjective 'actual' leads to the need both to understand each word within many contexts and to interpret these contexts