Lea Cantor (University of Cambridge) and Jonathan Egid (SOAS University of London)

In discussions about the diversification and decolonisation of philosophy, one crucial aspect is often overlooked: language. Even as philosophy opens its doors to a range of previously forgotten or excluded thinkers and traditions, the creeping English monolingualism of a globalised philosophy threatens to undermine the true diversity and complexity of philosophical expression. This masterclass brings into focus the rich philosophical resources of lesser-studied languages and makes a case for them as media of philosophy, drawing on a number of examples from non-Indo-European languages including classical Chinese and Ge’ez. We also suggest how paying close attention to the ways in which concepts translate across languages – sometimes seamlessly, ‘like birds over borders’, sometimes with great difficulty – can serve to expand the horizons of philosophy. Attending to the differences and similarities between the philosophical word-concepts across languages allows us to take stock of how much of our philosophy might be conditioned by the grammatical peculiarities of a particular language or set of languages, and how much has a wider application. We also highlight the pitfalls of studying philosophical texts in translation without regard for their original linguistic contexts, and what we risk missing out on in disregarding the problem of linguistic inclusion.

Lea Cantor is a Blacker Loewe Research Fellow in Philosophy at Peterhouse, University of Cambridge. Her primary research interests are in classical Chinese philosophy (especially Daoism), ancient Greek and Roman philosophy (especially early Greek philosophy and Hellenistic scepticism), and the global history and historiography of philosophy.

Jonathan Egid is a lecturer in philosophy at SOAS, University of London. He is interested in thinking about different ways of writing the history of philosophy, in particular what a truly global history of philosophy would look like. He is a BBC New Generation thinker for 2024, and a British Society for the History of Philosophy Postgraduate Fellow for the 2023-4 academic year.