Grey Thoughts
20.12.05
 
Communication and doubt
Deconstruction has been part of communication theory for the last 40+ years. Essentially, it adds in that meaning is created not just by the author (or speaker), but by the reader (or listerner). This is often heard when a teacher or person emphasis's what the text says to the particular reader, and not just what the text says. Ultimately, this results in the idea that true communication is impossible as the reader always interprets the meaning away from the authors original intent.

If this was truly the case, then I would have to ask: How would we know it? If true communication is impossible how could we ever know that what we believed was the meaning of what was written was wrong? That would require knowing what the meaning of what was written is, and the only way to find that out would be to have that communicated to us. Hence, it is impossible to know that true communication is impossible.
Comments:
I think that's the point, though, isn't it? I rarely hear someone say that only the reader's interpretation matters. Instead, it is that we can't know (as you've pointed out) and, therefore, since I can know my interpretation, I'll just go with that. It's different to say that there is no objective meaning and to say that we likely can't know it because we can't get past perspectives.

I still think we can know some of the objective meaning, although I'm not sure how much yet. I tend to think that we can know more than phenomenologists permit.

At any rate, interesting blog.
 
Post a Comment

<< Home

Powered by Blogger Weblog Commenting and Trackback by HaloScan.com