“Libertarianism” Should Be Translated as “Liberalism,” Not “Jayu Jisangjuui”

Liberalism/libertarianism refers to an ideology that consistently defends a system of property rights allocated without logical contradiction. Originally, this school of thought was known by the more intuitive and accurate term liberalism. However, by the mid-20th century, left-wing statists who supported government intervention began calling themselves liberals, and as a result, the “real” (classical) liberals abruptly found themselves stripped of their name and ultimately forced into a kind of linguistic exile under the new word libertarianism. This transition largely took place around the 1960s, and the person who contributed most to the rebirth of classical liberalism during this period was the great giant of the Austrian School, Murray N. Rothbard.

There is one irony here. Originally, libertarianism referred to the ideas of left-wing anarchists who strongly opposed private property and the market economy. In a sense, classical liberals, who had been victims pushed aside by the linguistic invasion of left-wing statists, became a kind of perpetrator themselves. Murray Rothbard also acknowledged this point in his book The Betrayal of the American Right. To avoid misunderstanding, it is worth quoting the original passage directly: “One gratifying aspect of our rise to some prominence is that, for the first time in my memory, we, ‘our side,’ had captured a crucial word from the enemy. ‘Libertarians’ had long been simply a polite word for left-wing anarchists, that is for anti-private property anarchists, either of the communist or syndicalist variety. But now we had taken it over.”

Whatever the history may be, the key point is that today a philosophy that defends liberty in a logically consistent manner is called libertarianism. In Korea, libertarianism is generally translated as jayujisangjuui. As in other countries, this is because liberalism, a left-wing ideology led by John Rawls, preempted the Korean translation jayujuui. However, while jayujisangjuui may be a convenient term, it is not a very accurate translation.

Libertarianism is a word formed by combining the English word liberty with the suffix -tarianism. The problem is that among English words ending in -tarianism, libertarianism is virtually the only one translated into Korean with the equivalent of “-jisangjuui” (“supremacism”).

Humanitarianism, structured as humanity + tarianism, is never translated as “inbonjisngjuui,” but rather as inbonjuui or bakaejuui. Egalitarianism is not “pyeongdeungjisangjuui,” but pyeongdeungjuui. Totalitarianism is likewise not “jeonchejisangjuui,” but jeonchejuui, and utilitarianism is not “hyoyongjisangjuui,” but gongrijuui or hyoyongjuui. Finally, vegetarianism is not “chaesikjisangjuui,” but chaesikjuui. Even lookism, perhaps the most famous term corresponding to “-jisangjuui” in Korean, does not even end in -tarianism.

Considering these English-Korean translation conventions, rendering libertarianism as jayujisangjuui is inconsistent and inaccurate. The correct translation of libertarianism is jayujuui.

Because the suffix corresponding to “-jisangjuui” carries a considerably negative connotation (for example, lookism, mammonism, grade supremacism, and consequentialism), anyone who loves liberty would do well to refrain from using the expression jayujisangjuui. In light of these problems, in 2013, when translating Murray Rothbard’s classic For a New Liberty, Emeritus Professor Yeongyo Jung of Kyung Hee University’s Department of Philosophy proposed jayujiseonjuui as the Korean rendering of libertarianism. However, since virtually no Korean words actually end with the suffix corresponding to “-jiseonjuui,” this too is not the best alternative if one takes into account the social and conventional nature of language.

Unfortunately, the Korean word jayujuui has in effect been contaminated by statist forces. Both left-wing statists and right-wing statists do not hesitate to use the term jayujuui to describe their own ideology. In particular, whereas in the past in Korea jayujuui often meant the social liberalism of figures such as Junggwon Chin, Simin Yoo, or Guk Cho, more recently it has come to be understood as a peculiar conservative ideology combining economic interventionism with political authoritarianism. Given this, a genuine liberal often faces difficulties in calling himself a liberal.

This is because the linguistic crisis that confronted American classical liberals in the mid-20th century can be seen as having arisen in a similar way for libertarians in Korea today. In the author’s personal view, even if the correct translation of libertarianism is jayujuui, given the practical problems mentioned above, it may be a good alternative not to translate libertarianism at all, but simply to transliterate it as liberteorianijeum. For the present situation, that may well be the best option.

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Original title: ‘libertarianism’은 ‘자유지상주의’가 아니라 ‘자유주의’로 번역되어야 한다

Author: Kyeong-hoon Kim

Date: 2021-04-26

Source: https://www.cfe.org/bbs/bbsDetail.php?cid=free_opinion&pn=11&idx=23650