Or, to put it another way if there were such an "objectivity" possible, students would not read Plato and Aristotle, they would read the logically "objective" meaning which we should, by now, have come to possess (which brings me back to final interpretant - two and half millennia is not enough to produce "objective" scholarly consensus, then what pragmatic use does the "final interpretant" actually have?
Jack ________________________________ From: JACK ROBERT KELLY CODY <jack.cody.2...@mumail.ie> Sent: Sunday, October 24, 2021 12:22 AM To: Peirce-L <peirce-l@list.iupui.edu>; Gary Richmond <gary.richm...@gmail.com> Subject: Re: [EXTERNAL] [PEIRCE-L] A key principle of normative semeiotic for interpreting texts This, in turn, leads to the error of denying that there is any such thing as an objectively correct (or objectively incorrect) reading of a text. In terms Gary Fuhrman recently used, this mistaken view has the internal context of the interpreter govern over the external context that is shared with the utterer. Gary, list, What is an objectively correct reading of a text? Wouldn't it merely be one which reproduced the text entirely without adding or removing anything to/from it? We can have objectively correct renderings of mathematical principles, but when we move to normative language, we would be lying to ourselves if we assumed we could always retrieve the author's intent within objectively scientific degrees of accuracy. Such is rarely (if ever) possible. The object is experienced subjectively, and the subject (re)produces the object from these conditions. There cannot be an absolutely "objective" reading of a text (especially regarding intent). If there is, I have yet to encounter it (and suspect only people who agree with each other in every respect have encountered such a thing). There are of course interpretations of texts which we think of as being better than others - but I'm not "sold" on the "final interpretant" of Peirce in a semeiotic system wherein all evolves continuously (what is final?). Best Jack ________________________________ From: peirce-l-requ...@list.iupui.edu <peirce-l-requ...@list.iupui.edu> on behalf of Gary Richmond <gary.richm...@gmail.com> Sent: Saturday, October 23, 2021 11:19 PM To: Peirce-L <peirce-l@list.iupui.edu> Subject: [EXTERNAL] [PEIRCE-L] A key principle of normative semeiotic for interpreting texts *Warning* This email originated from outside of Maynooth University's Mail System. Do not reply, click links or open attachments unless you recognise the sender and know the content is safe. List, To incorrectly, in my opinion, define 'representamen' as 'the mediative node' -- for example, as the 'function' that transforms 'input' into 'output' -- effectively assigns the role of mediating between the object and interpretant to the interpreter rather than to the sign. This, in turn, leads to the error of denying that there is any such thing as an objectively correct (or objectively incorrect) reading of a text. In terms Gary Fuhrman recently used, this mistaken view has the internal context of the interpreter govern over the external context that is shared with the utterer. If we abandon this ideal of objectivity -- which, of course, can never be perfectly or exactly realized -- we are left with nothing that serves as a standard for assessing actual interpretations. In the view of some on this List and off, this goal in the case of a written text is always properly discerning the author's intended meaning (intentional interpretant) as expressed in the text (immediate interpretant). For anyone who makes the interpreter the mediator, rather than the sign being that, there are only various individual readings, none of which is more or less valid than any other. Such a version of semiotics is not a normative science at all as It provides no basis for evaluating any particular reading as a better interpretation of a text, or even a misinterpretation of the text. And who would honestly deny that misinterpretations of texts do indeed occur? And who would seriously argue that any and every interpretation is as good as any other? Best, Gary R “Let everything happen to you Beauty and terror Just keep going No feeling is final” ― Rainer Maria Rilke Gary Richmond Philosophy and Critical Thinking Communication Studies LaGuardia College of the City University of New York
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