We are getting off-topic, but David Moore's recent post could not go unmarked:
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It is fairly well agreed by all that the writer encodes his meaning when writing the text and that the
reader reads meaning from the text, but key to any discussion of meaning and the possibility of
correctly ascertaining the meaning of any text is whether we may legitimately say that there is
meaning in the text itself. If there is, then there is the possibility of either correctly or incorrectly
understanding that meaning.
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I won't go through all the arguments I have with such claims, but will only point out that--far from
"fairly well agreed by all"--the matters to which he alludes are the topic of intense and thoughtful
critical attention.
Philosophical problems need not sidetrack us from matters of Greek grammar, but please don't try to
shore up one side of a debate by pretending that the other side doesn't exist (particularly when you
commend Carl for his advice that we exercise scholarly forebearance).
Now, let's save bandwidth and argue about nominative absolutes. Or whatever.
Grace and peace,
A K M Adam
f49adam@ptsmail.ptsem.edu
Princeton Theological Seminary
"A theory of truth is one theory too many"