Xn3cTs

the sequel to “reading with/and understanding”

from autograffiti@yahoogroups.com, may13, 2003

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Is the concern for a reader/interpreter’s having the “right attitude” tantamount to a so-called “primacy of the reader”?

I don’t think so.

But first we need to understand that “the primacy of the text” is not the same as the “objectivity” that is much-valued by modernity. In this paradigm, the world is divided into the “subjective” and the “objective.” Of course, we have grown accustomed to seeing “the objective” as tied up with the truth. The subjective is on the other hand, linked with personal biases and prejudices. (The existentialists reacted by giving a premium on the subjective.)

Thus, the traditional method of reaching the truth is to approximate the objective as much as possible. Prejudices need to be bracketed or suspended. Prejudices prevent us from knowing the “objective” truth.

Even before Gadamer rehabilitated “prejudice” and saw it as the very starting point and condition of knowing/understanding, other philosophers have already questioned the idea of an objective, (ahistorical, atemporal, aperspectival) knowing.

To know/understand is always to know/understand from a given perspective (bias/prejudice, if you will.)

The point is not to get rid of these prejudices (which is impossible, so long as we remain as humans), but to be aware of them, so we know where we are coming from. The text is an “other,” which I cannot simply reduce to the familiarity of my own meanings.

This attitude of deference to the otherness of the text is what I have called the “right attitude.” Thus, what provides the corrective to my possible misunderstanding? The text. There is not one correct readings/interpretations but this doesn’t mean that there are no wrong interpretations. When does one have a wrong interpretation? When that is not supported by the text. And not all interpretations are created equal. Some are definitely better than others.

It is always the text which is the main basis of interpretation. Thus, the primacy of the text.

best regards,
ian, the magic-ian

Tags: Alterity, Hermeneutics, Interpretation, Meaning, Objectivity, Perspective, Philosophy, Prejudice, Reading, Subjectivity, Text, truth, Understanding

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