Abstract - Translations of Economic Texts into and from European

GILLES CAMPAGNOLO
Why Carl Menger was not translated into French
- and how that was repaired after 128 years!
Abstract
How do we understand how schools of scientific thought evolve and spread through the
dissemination of their founding texts – and the translations thereof ? That epistemological
issue is here answered regarding the reception of the Austrian School of Economic Thought in
France, through the history of the reception and translation of the theoretical and of the
methodological masterworks of its founder, Carl Menger (1840-1921): the Principles (1871)
and the Investigations (1883).
The first translation of the 1883 Investigations into the Method of Social Sciences and
Political Economy in Particular awaited 128 years before being translated and published in
French (by the author of this presentation, 2011 at EHESS Press)! The translation of the 1871
Principles (by the same) is forthcoming. How was at all possible that almost incredible fact –
while translations in any other major language of science exist since long (and there are
sometimes several translations of these works in the same language, like in Italian). Of all the
texts by Menger, only one exists in French: the one he himself published (and signed under a
Frenchified first name: Charles) in 1892 in the Revue d’économie politique (6th issue) under
the title La monnaie, mesure de valeur (the author of this presentation translated it into
English and presented in the summer 2005 issue of the journal History Of Political Economy).
This lack of access in the French language is a permanent source of bewilderment for
scholars. We will show it is also highly significant of the evolution of Austrian views in
France. We shall display the paradox that made Carl Menger first an unconditional reference
of moral authority (elected as a correspondent of Académie des sciences morales et politiques
for Central Europe) dedicated to liberal thought and then ended in a no less blatant French
avoidance of him thereafter, and until very recently. Some room will be given both to sociopolitical history of France and to grounding concepts of Menger’s views set back in context.
The present contribution thus offers a view upon lasting misunderstandings in the
evolution of the Austrian school within France for almost one century and a half since
Menger’s groundbreaking masterwork, his 1871 Principles. Some room will be granted to
discuss the two editions of this work (1871, and 1923, posthumously edited by Menger’s son)
that also played a role in France. The paradox is that part of the rediscovery of this Austrian,
hence European, heritage has been through the screen of an “Austrian” school that has
become very much “Austro-American”: the presenter will insist on the necessity to translate
from the original, as well as on the significance of the “Austrianness” of the work translated.
Mots-clefs/Key-words : Austrian economics, Hayek (Friedrich), Menger (Carl), Menger (Karl),
migration and exile (in Academia), Mises (Ludwig von).
References for this presentation
1. The two major original works by Carl Menger and their translations by CAMPAGNOLO Gilles
- 2011 : Recherches sur la méthode dans les sciences sociales et en économie politique en
particulier. Paris, Éditions de l’EHESS, coll. ‘EHESS-translations’ (selected as one of the first
two volumes launched together in 2011), 576 p. This is the first French translation (full text
with philological apparatus) with a presentation and an inquiry into the Methodenstreit, of the
Untersuchungen über die Methode der Socialwissenschaften und der politischen Ökonomie
insbesondere de Carl Menger (1883, Leipzig, Duncker & Humblot, 288 p. It includes a parttranslation of Menger, Irrthümer des Historismus (Vienna, Alfred Hölder, 1884).
- Forthcoming : Principes d’économie politique. Présentation, traduction intégrale et
commentaire de Menger (Grundsätze der Volkswirtschaftslehre, Wien, 1871, Wilhelm
Braumüller, 288 p).
2. Sources and references about the history of the reception of Austrian economics in France,
including texts about France in French, like
-
-
Berns, Egidius (1991), « Économie et passivité. Une déconstruction de la théorie et de
la méthodologie économique de Carl Menger », Économies et sociétés, vol. 25,
janvier, p. 5-25.
Bloch, Henri Simon (1937), La théorie des besoins de Carl Menger, Introduction de
Gaëtan Pirou, Paris.
Garrouste, Pierre (1994), « Léon Walras et Carl Menger à propos de l’utilisation des
mathématiques en économie politique », Économies et sociétés, série PE, n° 20-21, p.
11-27.
Haller, Markus (2001), « Expliquer l’existences des institutions par la main invisible:
Menger et après », in Cometti, J.-P. & Mulligan K., La philosophie autrichienne de
Bolzano à
GILLES CAMPAGNOLO is a Full research professor at the French National Center for Scientific
Research (CNRS) and a Senior member at Aix-Marseilles School of Economics. He supervises 4 PhD
students, has published 5 monographs, directed 2 collective volumes, and pulished numerous articles.
As regards tranlation of economic works, he has worked on Carl Menger and Gustav Schmoller, using
Menger’s archives in Japan and at Duke U., NC, extensively – including the elements in the
presentation for this conference.
Campagnolo’s own texts translated into foreign languages (original and target language indicated with
arrows) are :
-
-
forthcoming French  Japanese (tr. Takayuki Shimoda, revised Masataka
Muramatsu) : «
- Heiwa no Gainen, Shakaiteki to
Rekishiteki wo kangaeru » (translation of « Petite histoire sociologique du concept de
paix », 2006 – A Short Socio-History of the Concept of Peace)
2012
English

Japanese
(tr.
Naoki
Matsuyama)
<
>
? , Economic Studies.
Journal of Economics of Hokkaido University (in Japanese,
KEIZAIGAKU
KENKYU), issue number: 62 (3), pp.177-206, Sapporo, Hokkaido UP. Translation of
“Was the Austrian School a ‘Psychological’ School in the realm of Economics in Carl
Menger’s view?”, in Campagnolo (ed.) 2008 : Carl Menger. Neu erörtert unter
Einbeziehung nachgelassener Texte / Discussed on the Basis of New
Findings, Frankfurt/Main – Wien, Peter Lang Verlag, p. 165-186
-
-
2010: French  Italian (tr. Renato Prada) : « Lessico politico: il concetto di pace »,
(translation of « Petite histoire sociologique du concept de paix », 2006), Il Ponte. Rivista
di politica economia e cultura, Florence, sept. 2010, LXVI/10, p. 52-67
2008: French  German (tr. Herta Mayerhofer) : « Eine kurze Geschichte des
Friedenskonzept » (translation of « Petite histoire sociologique du concept de paix »,
2006), Wiener Blätter zur Friedensforschung, Vienne, Autriche, 2008, n° 134, p. 39-60,
published by the Wiener Universitätszentrum für Friedensforschung
2002
French

Japanese
(trad.
Kôichi
Yamazaki) :
Mengâ-bunko: aru keizaishisô no genshiryô (translation
of “Un exemple de réception de l’économie occidentale au Japon: la bibliothèque de Carl
Menger au Japon”, 2001: An Example of reception of Western economics in Japan: the
Case of the Menegr Library), Bulletin of the Center for Historical Social Science
Literature, 22, Tokyo, 2002, p. 23-39.