Flywheel seems like a very odd translation to me: a flywheel does not
'regulate' in any sense, it maintains inertia (in the sense of
forward momentum) to the crankshaft assembly in an engine, hence
'volant d'inertie'. I think in French it normally now means
'steering wheel', but might it be a metaphorical reference to 'flight
controls' of some sort?
On 03/09/2010, at 11:58 PM, Teemu K wrote:
On 03/09/2010, at 11:58 PM, Teemu K wrote:
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
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