Hi, Gibson,
"There's 'lateral thinking', so I would have thought that's the obvious association," you say in response to my statement that it's utter nonsense (in this context!). And you offer three cites to it. (Thank you.)
Yes, I should clarify that when I said it's utter nonsense, I meant as a translation to Querdenker, of course, and by that I specifically limit my objection to it as a translation for the new idiomatic use of Querdenker for, basically, Covid-denier. I did not mean the term cannot be found in the wild. I meant, as I thought I made clear, it's nonsense as a useful translation here, for this.
Certainly, I agree the term exists "in the wild," and I agree it has been used in translations (as a look in linguee.com will attest). That wasn't my point. However, let me address your three citations. I'll take them out of order, starting with the second one.
That second link leads to a remark about the birthday of Dr. Edward de Bono of Malta. Looking him up on Wikipedia, we find (footnotes elided; emphasis added):
- Edward Charles Francis Publius de Bono (born 19 May 1933)[] is a Maltese physician, psychologist, author, inventor, philosopher and consultant. He originated the term lateral thinking, wrote the book Six Thinking Hats and is a proponent of the teaching of thinking as a subject in schools.[]
Ergo, we have arrived at the classic notion of "begging the question" in its original, correct, sense: using a thing found to prove its own legitimacy. It's a Kunstwort, meaning a synthetic term invented by a known person, and that known person is Dr. de Bono himself.
The third of your three offered links leads to an article explaining what lateral thinking is (since, apparently, most people don't know!), and, again, citing its inventor, Dr. de Bono, as its originator. The article makes it clear enough that the term is not appropriate as a translation for the 2020/2021 idiomatic usage of Querkender. By the way, we used to more or less call this thinking outside the box (über den Tellerrand) and a few other things, such as inductive vs deductive reasoning, etc.
The (out of order here) first citation of yours is two-and-a-half years old and is titled "Lateral Thinking: What Is It and Why Is It Important?" The title itself (along with the recent date) should be enough to tell us that most people don't know what it is, so it's unlikely to be a useful translation for Querdenker. The article defines it thus: "lateral thinking is the ability to look at problems or ideas in a new light, taking a creative approach to finding solutions." We are informed that such a skill might be useful to companies looking for advantageous hire candidates. (I agree, but, again, that's not a Querdenker.)
In summation, your cites only sharpen my point that it's the wrong word for Querdenker (especially for the newest, co-opted meaning of that) and that it's basically nonsense in the context of a translation for it (since most people don't know what it means, for one!).
I acknowledge your remark that you are not claiming it's the correct translation. I will go further and claim that it's the wrong translation.
