The place and the significance of ethics in the field of translation

Discussions about the moral aspects of translation activity have never losed its meaning throughout the history and today the moral problems peculiar to translation activity are studied in the field of translation studies under the title called "ethics of translation". The present studies about the ethics of translation either give some prescriptions which dictate to the translator his/her duty during the translation process or describe the concrete problems that occur in this process. Likewise, those studies offer different solutions to each one of these concrete problems different solutions. One of the important reasons of this situation is that in the field of ethics of translation, the present studies consider translation or translation activity in narrow sense and ignore the totality of this activity. Because it is not a suitable approach to consider only translator- or product-oriented perspective while defining the ethics of translation. In this study, we aim to develop a general point of view by presenting the conditions of ethics of translation. By using the studies in the field of ethics of translation, we try to reveal the unseen paradoxes in the offered solutions to the common problems. Moreover, in this study we aim to ground the ethics of translation by reconsidering the fundamental ethical theories. There are contradictory views on the same issue in the discussions of the ethics of translation and we try to display these views in a body. Depending on this, we develop and suggest "three-stage ethical evaluation model" and evaluate the related discussions by using this model. Finally, we do not mean to create a norm that can serve as a prescription for ethics of translation. Here, the primary goal is to determine the conditions which are necessary to ground ethics of translation.