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Article published In:
Target
Vol. 30:1 (2018) ► pp.3–23

On randomness

ORCID logo | University of Amsterdam

Andrew Chesterman’s 2008 article “On Explanation” examines what it means to explain translational phenomena. In doing so, it explores the nature of explanation itself and raises one crucial question: How much is beyond explanation? In other words, to what extent could translational phenomena be due to mere chance? This article addresses this question by drawing on six landmark experiments within the field of psychology. These experiments suggest (1) that we, as translators, might unknowingly be injecting random elements into our translations, and (2) that we, as Translation Studies scholars, might be ‘seeing’ causes in that randomness where there are none. This article also draws on psychologist Daniel Kahneman’s ideas about the ‘illusion of causation’ and on Nassim Taleb’s definition of randomness within the humanities and social sciences. It concludes by arguing that retrospective explanations of translations should pay far more than lip service to the notion of chance.

Keywords: randomness, uncertainty, cognitive errors, explanation
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Chesterman on explanation
  • 3.Randomness and its relation to TS
  • 4.Daniel Kahneman on the machinery of cognition and cognitive errors: System 1 and 2
  • 5.Six experiments
    • 5.1Experiment 1: The illusion of physical causation
    • 5.2Experiment 2: The illusion of intentional causation
    • 5.3Experiment 3: What are our intentions actually?
    • 5.4Experiment 4: Anchoring and the wheel of fortune
    • 5.5Experiment 5: Priming and a word recognition task
    • 5.6Experiment 6: Priming and our attitudes
  • 6.Discussion
    • 6.1The illusion of causation and TS scholarship
    • 6.2Randomness and translation
    • 6.3Random primes and TS scholarship
  • 7.Concluding remarks
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 25 January 2018
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/target.14124.coh
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