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Full-Text Articles in Philosophy
Davidson On Rorty's Postmetaphysical Critique Of Intentionalism, Kalle Puolakka
Davidson On Rorty's Postmetaphysical Critique Of Intentionalism, Kalle Puolakka
Contemporary Aesthetics (Journal Archive)
In this article I shall address the standing of intentionalist theories of interpretation through Richard Rorty’s critique. Rorty’s criticism arises from the position literature holds in the post metaphysical, liberal culture Rorty sketches As a counterbalance to Rorty’s critique, I shall develop an intentionalist theory of interpretation drawing on Donald Davidson’s late philosophy of language and his view of literary interpretation that have sadly not been taken into proper consideration in the on-going debate in analytic aesthetics on the role of authorial intentions in interpretation. The prospects of Davidson’s intentionalism for meeting Rorty’s criticism are related to the position of …
Intentions And Interpretations: Philosophical Fiction As Conversation, Jukka Mikkonen
Intentions And Interpretations: Philosophical Fiction As Conversation, Jukka Mikkonen
Contemporary Aesthetics (Journal Archive)
Appeals to the actual author's intention in order to legitimate an interpretation of a work of literary narrative fiction have generally been considered extraneous in Anglo-American philosophy of literature since Wimsatt and Beardsley's well-known manifesto from the 1940s. For over sixty years now so-called anti-intentionalists have argued that the author's intentions – plans, aims, and purposes considering her work – are highly irrelevant to interpretation. In this paper, I shall argue that the relevance of the actual author's intentions varies in different approaches to fiction, and suggest that fictions are legitimately interpreted intentionally as conversations in a certain kind of …