Rationality and reasonableness in textual interpretation

Abstract

What is the difference between interpreting a literary text during a university lecture and interpreting reality outside of the academe? And what is the difference between interpreting in natural sciences and interpreting in the humanities? Despite evident and known divergences, humanities too can rank their interpretations and aspire to guide the interpretations of society. Three alternative methods can be used so as to test interpretive hypotheses, depending on whether the author’s, the reader’s, or the text’s meaningful intentionality is primarily investigated. The third method is superior to the first two since it leads to the creation of a common meta-discursive space for inter-subjective exchange about meaning. Although adopting an appropriate methodology is essential in textual analysis, that which is even more important is supporting the creation of a community of interpreters that, sharing the same method, engage in the constructive comparison and ranking of interpretive moves.