The Epistemology of Reading and Interpretation

Erscheinungsjahr 2023
ISBN: 978-1-009-01636-0
Verlag: Cambridge University Press

Buch, Englisch, 252 Seiten, Format (B × H): 154 mm x 226 mm, Gewicht: 360 g

Reading and textual interpretation are ordinary human activities, performed inside as well as outside academia, but precisely how they function as unique sources of knowledge is not well understood. In this book, René van Woudenberg explores the nature of reading and how it is distinct from perception and (attending to) testimony, which are two widely acknowledged knowledge sources. After distinguishing seven accounts of interpretation, van Woudenberg discusses the question of whether all reading inevitably involves interpretation, and shows that although reading and interpretation often go together, they are distinct activities. He goes on to argue that both reading and interpretation can be paths to realistically conceived truth, and explains the conditions under which we are justified in believing that they do indeed lead us to the truth. Along the way, he offers clear and novel analyses of reading, meaning, interpretation, and interpretative knowledge.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Woudenberg, René van

Fachgebiete

• Geisteswissenschaften Philosophie Erkenntnistheorie
• Geisteswissenschaften Philosophie Metaphysik, Ontologie

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Introduction; 1. Knowing and reading; 2. Reading and understanding; 3. Sources of knowledge and their individuation; 4. Why reading doesn't reduce either to attending to testimony or to perception; 5. Reading as a source of knowledge; 6. The objects of reading are the products of writing; 7. Texts, meanings, and interpretation; 8. Knowledge through interpretation (1): Allegory, difficulty, and disambiguation; 9. Knowledge through interpretation (2): Holism, reconstruction, externalism, and reader response.

Über Autor(innen)

Woudenberg, René van
René van Woudenberg is Professor of Philosophy at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam and Director of the Abraham Kuyper Center for Science and the Big Questions. He is co-editor of The Cambridge Companion to Common-Sense Philosophy (with Rik Peels, Cambridge, 2020) and Scientism: Prospects and Problems (with Rik Peels and Jeroen de Ridder, 2018).