The Problem of the Construction of Turkish as a Languageof Philosophy According to Hilmi Ziya Ulken

Abstract

The issue of constructing Turkish as a language of science and philosophy has been under discussion for nearly a century and a half. Not only philosophy dictionaries have been written on this subject, but also theoretical and questioning studies have been conducted in terms of the potential and possibilities of Turkish. The questions addressed are approximately as follows: What kind of language is Turkish? Is it possible to construct it as a language of philosophy? Will the concepts and terms be taken from Eastern and Western languages, or will they be derived from Turkish's own possibilities of expression? One of our philosophers who has encountered such problems is Hilmi Ziya Ulken. As one of the people who has contributed the most to philosophy in Turkish, Ulken has not only written works on various disciplines of philosophy and translated some philosophy classics into Turkish, but also contributed to the construction of Turkish as a language of philosophy with his qualified works such as Humanitarian Patriotism, Love Ethics, Being and becoming, and the Role of Translation in Awakening Periods. This article will address the issue of the possibility of Turkish as a language of philosophy in the sample of Ulken's views on the subject.