Epilogue to the unabridged Korean translation of On War

"전쟁론" 완역 후기

This year I published a Korean translation of On War in three volumes, written by Prussian general Carl von Clausewitz. I believe it is the first unabridged Korean translation from the original German text, Vom Kriege. It is true that the work has been translated into Korean several times, but some translations have been done from English or Japanese versions, while others are abridged ones. It is not easy to make a good translation of On War, partly because the book is actually an unfinished work, and partly because it contains almost all academic subjects in social sciences. Moreover, two aspects of the dialectical logic in the book make it more difficult to understand. One is inductive reasoning, the other is deductive explanation. The former is to 'ascend' to draw principles and generalizations from empirical experience, the latter is to 'descend' to describe and explain given principles, often by concrete examples. Considering these difficulties, if we want to have better translations than existing ones, there should be substantial commentaries which contain not only history of wars, but also biographies and geographies concerned. I hope that On War can be taught and studied in many universities, for it will make it easier to produce reliable commentaries.