Seeing and Reading

280 Pages·1984·32.615 MB·English

by  Graeme Nicholson (auth.)

SEEING AND READING
CONTEMPORARY STUDIES IN PHILOSOPHY AND THE
HUMAN SCIENCES
Series Editor: John Sallis, Loyola University of Chicago
Associate Editors: Hugh J. Silverman, SUNY-Stony Brook
David Farrell Krell, University of Essex
EDITORIAL BOARD
Edward Casey, SUNY-Stony Brook Wolfe Mays, University of Manchester
Jacques Dernda, Ecole Normale Supe'rieure, Pans Otto Poggeler, Ruhr-Umversitat Bochum
Amedeo Giorgi, Duquesne Umversity Jacque~ Tam1maux, Umvers1te' de
Karsten Harries, Yale University Louvam-la-neuve
Don Ihde, SUNY-Stony Brook Bernhard Waldenfels, Ruhr-Umver~1tlit
Lou1s Marin, Ecole Practlque des Bochum
Hautes Etudes, Paris Dav1d Wood, Umvers1ty of Warw1ck
This new international book series explores recent developments
in philosophy as they relate to foundational questions in the
human sciences. The series stresses fundamental and pervasive
issues, alternative methods, and current styles of thought. It
constitutes a response to the emergence in England and
America of widespread interest in the domains, intersections,
and limits of questions arising from the human sciences within a
climate inspired chiefly by Continental thought. Although
primarily philosophical in orientation, the series cuts across the
boundaries of traditional disciplines and will include volumes in
such areas as phenomenology, structuralism, semiotics, post
structuralism, critical theory, hermeneutics, and contemporary
cultural (literary and artistic) criticism.
Other Titles
DIALECTIC AND DIFFERENCE by Taminiaux, translated by
James Decker and Robert Crease
WHERE WORDS BREAK by Robert Bernasconi
BEYOND METAPHYSICS? by John Llewelyn
SEEING AND READING
~
by
Graeme Nicholson
HUMANITIES: NEW JERSEY
M
First published in 1984 in the United States of America by
HUMANITIES PRESS INC., Atlantic Highlands, NJ 07716 and in Great
Britain 1984 by THE MACMILLAN PRESS LTD., London and Basingstoke
Companies and representatives throughout the world.
© Copyright 1984 by Humanities Press Inc.
Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 1984 978-0-333-37424-5
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Nicholson, Graeme.
Seeing and reading.
(Contemporary studies in philosophy and the human
sciences)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
1. Interpretation (Philosophy) 2. Perception
(Philosophy) 3. Comprehension. I. Title. II. Series.
B824.17.N52 1983 121'.68 83-12854
ISBN 978-1-349-07477-8 ISBN 978-1-349-07475-4 (eBook)
DOI 10.1007/978-1-349-07475-4
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or
transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical including
recording, or any information, storage and retrieval system, without permission
in writing from the publishers.
To my mother
Ethel Mary Nicholson
and to the memory of my father
Clarence Mackinnon Nicholson
with gratitude and love
Contents
INTRODUCTION
CHAPTER ONE. INTERPRETATION
1. Two Branches of Interpretation 1
2. Background Interpretation in Perception 2
3. Foreground Interpretation in Scholarship 12
4. The Main Theories of Interpretation 24
PART ONE. SEEING
CHAPTER TWO. PROJECTION
1. The Three Constituents of Interpretation 35
2. Projects and Projection 39
3. Projection and Interpretation 52
4. Linguistic Interpretation in Perception 57
CHAPTER THREE. APPEARANCE
1. The Uninterpreted 69
2. Unconcealedness and Truth 71
3. An Eminent Perception 81
4. Scenes and Affmities 87
CHAPTER FOUR. ILLUMINATION
1. The Question of Truth in Perception 101
2. The Traditional Idea of Illumination 102
3. The Parallel in Heidegger's Thought 107
4. Mind and Consciousness: A Critique 117
PART TWO. READING
CHAPTER FIVE. THE PROJECTIONS OF UNDERSTANDING
1. The Analogy of Interpretation 127
2. Simple Reading and Its Ramifications 131
3. Ventriloquism-a Kind of Projection 136
4. Themes Projected by Interpreters 146
CHAPTER SIX. LINGUISTIC AND
MATERIAL INTERPRETATION
1. The Problem of Truth in Exposition 151
2. Material Interpretation: Abstract and Otherwise 157
3. Abstract Linguistic Interpretation 168
4. Words and Things. More on Appearance 176
CHAPTER SEVEN. HISTORICAL AND PSYCHOLOGICAL
INTERPRETATION
1. History and Tradition. More on Illumination 193
2. The Blending of Meanings 202
3. Society and Ideology 211
4. The Author's Intention 219
5. Translation 227
CHAPTER EIGHT. CONCLUSION
1. Inferences on Language 241
2. Interpretation in Philosophy 255
NOTES 263
INDEX 273
Acknowledgments
It now seems a long time since I began the research that led to this book. I
was able to spend the winter of 197 3-7 4 in Rome, owing to a grant from the
Canada Council-predecessor of the Social Sciences and Humanities Research
Council of Ottawa-and I acknowledge with gratitude the help this gave to me.
It was also some years back that Hans-Georg Gadamer began his annual
trips from Heidelberg to various centers in North America, and I am grateful to
him for undertaking them. It was a stimulus to me, and an inspiration to my
work, to hear him lecture on hermeneutics, and to discuss these matters with
him.
John Sallis has been of great help to me for a number of years now, both
through his own philosophical work and through the practical advice and help
he has generously given me.
I would like to thank Rebecca Comay, Frank Cunningham and Theodore
Kisiel for their very lucid comments on various drafts of this manuscript.
For many years I have derived great benefit from discussing phenomenology
and hermeneutics with Robert McNeil and Frederic Schroeder, and I would
like to thank them for their insights as well as for their friendship to me.
Barbara Anno and Joan Fox of the University of Toronto have helped me in
many ways during the time I have been working on this book, and I am most
grateful to them.
Most of all, I would like to thank Linda Nicholson, my wife. When I think
back over the years I have worked on this project, it is her presence that counts
for more than anything else in my life. Our son Luke has also helped us both in
many ways.
This book is dedicated to my mother and father. It was in their home that I
first learned many of the things I have tried to say here.
Toronto
June, 1983
Introduction