Philosophical diegesis and translation: philosophy as a second life

In order to highlight the close link between philosophy and translation, this paper investigates the topic focusing on the peculiar textuality of philosophy, and on how philosophers believe it should be read. There are not many philosophers who provide guidance on how to read philosophical texts, but two of these are Nietzsche and Hegel. According to Nietzsche, a philosophical text should be read slowly, following a particular rhythm that is not suitable for people in a hurry. According to the Preface to the Phenomenology of Spirit, the peculiar difficulty, but also the merit, of philosophical texts lies in the fact that they must be re-read, that is to say, they are texts that must be read at least twice, following a progression that is both proleptic and analectic. Furthermore, Hegel himself defines philosophy in a central passage as the translation of experience into concepts. Using the conceptuality of François Jullien and Walter Benjamin, the contribution tries to suggest that philosophical diegesis in itself involves the doubling effect typical of the dynamics of translation, and that, according to an interpretation by which philosophy sheds light on translation and vice versa, both can be thought of as a second life.