Ciaran Cronin
(born 1961 in Dublin) Translator
Ciaran Cronin studied Philosophy (specialising in contemporary continental philosophy, German moral philosophy and political philosophy) in Ireland, Belgium and Germany. After gaining a PhD at the Northwestern University in Illinois, USA he taught philosophy at Grinnell College, Iowa (1991-94) and the University of Illinois at Chicago (1996-2003). Since 2004 he has worked as a freelance translator based in Berlin.
His specialisms have been the humanities and social studies and in particular philosophy, political theory, politics and sociology. His publications have included numerous articles and book chapters on modern and contemporary political philosophy, including Globalization as Process and Ideology (2010), On the Possibility of a Democratic Constitutional Founding: Habermas and Michelman in Dialogue (2006) and Kant's Politics of Enlightenment (2003).
Three questions to Ciaran Cronin
Why did you choose to become a translator?
I became a translator because I was able to make a contribution to a very specialised subject area and because it made it possible for me to continue to do research.
Which German book do you like the best and why?
If I could only name one German book as my favorite, then it would be Immanuel Kant's Critique of Pure Reason. To me this is until today the most important book of modern philosophy, perhaps of all philosophy
Is there a particular book you would like to translate?
A book I'd like to translate is Otfried Höffe's Königliche Völker (Suhrkamp 2001) which is about Kant's philosophy of law and the state.