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Hermeneutics: Saying more than we intend

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Gracia nicely illustrates how meaning can go beyond authorial intention with a reference to games: “one of the plays makes a move the significance of which he does not quite grasp. For the player is the author of the move, and wins or loses accordingly, by virtue of the fact that he is a player engaged in the game. Likewise, an author is a player in the textual game and, in authoring a text, is to be taken as intending to convey a specific meaning, even if not fully aware of all that is contained in the specific meaning in question.”

It’s a common experience for teachers: A student offers a suggestion that, because of his relative ignorance of the subject, is sillier or more brilliant than he realizes.

posted by Peter J. Leithart on Thursday, August 7, 2008 at 1:02 pm

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Hermeneutics: Saying more than we intend

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