Despairing of Despair, Living for Today and the Day after Tomorrow: Reflections on Naoko Saito’s American Philosophy in Translation

Abstract

This is a finely conceived, elegantly written, and exquisitely executed work. At its center, there is Naoko Saito ’s creative appropriation of one of Cavell’s most fecund suggestions—philosophy is first and foremost an activity and, as such, it is either akin to or, more strongly, identifiable with practices of translation.1 Everything I have to say concerns translation, if only implicitly. Moreover, I offer everything as a friendly amendment. That is, I take my reflections on her book to be in accord with both the spirit and, in most instances, even the letter of her texts. Whether or not she receives my remarks as such is, of course, her prerogative. My intent regarding these suggestions is one thing, their reception another.