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TeacherJapan Posted 10 years ago
Grammar
How to interpret this sentence about philosophy.
I have a question about the following paragraph.
Restricting philosophy for the moment to reflection on the principles of natural science, what I have just said may be put by saying that natural science must come first in order that philosophy may have something to reflect on; but that ? the two things are so closely related that natural science cannot go on for long without philosophy beginning.
? The two things are so closely related that natural science cannot go on for long without philosophy beginning.
About this part, which interpretation is closer in the original?
1) Immediately after natural science goes on, philosophy begins.
2) Natural science goes on for a while, and then philosophy begins.
Restricting philosophy for the moment to reflection on the principles of natural science, what I have just said may be put by saying that natural science must come first in order that philosophy may have something to reflect on; but that ? the two things are so closely related that natural science cannot go on for long without philosophy beginning.
? The two things are so closely related that natural science cannot go on for long without philosophy beginning.
About this part, which interpretation is closer in the original?
1) Immediately after natural science goes on, philosophy begins.
2) Natural science goes on for a while, and then philosophy begins.
Top answer
teacherJapan 1) Immediately after natural science goes on, philosophy begins. 2) Natural science goes on for a while, and then philosophy begins. (1) doesn't work well.
- teacherJapan 1) Immediately after natural science goes on, philosophy begins.
- 2) Natural science goes on for a while, and then philosophy begins.
- (1) doesn't work well.
- Something that "goes on" doesn't have a defined endpoint for something else to happen "immediately after".
- (2) is better, but the meaning of "cannot go on for long" is not fully captured by "for a while".
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3 Answers
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teacherJapan1) Immediately after natural science goes on, philosophy begins. 2) Natural science goes on for a while, and then philosophy begins.(1) doesn't work well. Something that "goes on" doesn't have a defined endpoint for something else to happen "immediately after".
(2) is better, but the meaning of "cannot go on for long" is not fully capture
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Ah, I see. It is harder than I thought to rephrase the original. Thank you for your help, GPY.
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teacherJapan? The two things are so closely related that natural science cannot go on for long without philosophy beginning. About this part, which interpretation is closer in the original? 1) Immediately after natural science goes on, philosophy begins. 2) Natural science goes on for a while, and then philosophy begins.Both of your paraphrases leave out the
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