[MD] The strong interpretation of stop signs.

[Ian Glendinning]

Excellent DMB.


The police officer upholding laws we agree as common sense, but
branded fascist when they do .... is a great analogy for why democracy
is more than an anarchic free for all. That does no justice to
"freedom".

Ian

On Sat, Jul 17, 2010 at 10:06 PM, david buchanan <dmbuchanan at hotmail.com> wrote:
>
> Arlo said:
> It just struck me as coming close to the height of absurdity to declare that the man who's ideas we are here (ostensibly) to discuss is the "least" authority on what those ideas are. It would be like me saying, "Let's talk about what John's ideas are, but the person who we can ignore the most in that discussion is John".
>
>
>
> dmb says:
>
> Exactly. There are situations where the delicate handling of interpretive issues would make sense. Say, if the work in question is written in a dead language or if only fragments remain. Maybe it's a complex literary work of art. People get real philosophical about interpretive theories. Not too long ago, literary theorists operated on the premise that the author's intention is irrelevant. The death of the author was proclaimed as the birth of the reader. It is the reader who constructs meaning from the text, so that's really where the action is, they said.
>
> But then hacks get their hands on these not very interesting ideas and before you know it everything means anything anybody wants it mean and - presto! - we're all swimming in sea of bullshit. It quickly turns into nothing but sheer intellectual debauchery. And then anyone who protests against this nonsense is Hitler.
>
> In this case the author is a contemporary, English-speaking guy who can and has answered questions about how to interpret his meaning. He was presented with Bo's idea and he has said quite plainly that he never agreed with it. How much room for interpretation can there be in a case like that?
>
> It's like telling the traffic cop that he's wrong about the meaning of the "stop" sign you passed without stopping. Somehow, that should earn you two traffic tickets. Come to think of it, a person who can't rightly "interpret" things like stop signs should probably not be allowed to drive at all.
>
>
>
>
>
> _________________________________________________________________
> Hotmail is redefining busy with tools for the New Busy. Get more from your inbox.
> http://www.windowslive.com/campaign/thenewbusy?ocid=PID28326::T:WLMTAGL:ON:WL:en-US:WM_HMP:042010_2
> Moq_Discuss mailing list
> Listinfo, Unsubscribing etc.
> http://lists.moqtalk.org/listinfo.cgi/moq_discuss-moqtalk.org
> Archives:
> http://lists.moqtalk.org/pipermail/moq_discuss-moqtalk.org/
> http://moq.org/md/archives.html
>