[lit-ideas] Re: JUST THE FACTS, MA'AM. (was Re: Re: Historians & Bush)

  • From: "Phil Enns" <phil.enns@xxxxxxxxxxx>
  • To: <lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • Date: Tue, 6 Dec 2005 11:57:13 -0500

Mike Geary wrote:

"My position is, I think, that something is a fact only because we
interpret it as a fact."

The problem here is that it isn't at all clear what Mike means by
interpreting.  We interpret a look, a piece of music, a sentence in
another language, etc.  In each case, one could substitute one
interpretation with another.  But imagine someone who claimed that a
particular interpretation of a sonnet was a fact.  What sense could one
make of that claim?  One could sensibly claim that a particular
interpretation was better than another, and one might even resort to
facts in order to justify such a claim.  But wouldn't it be odd to claim
that in a sonnet, it was a fact that Shakespeare was referring to a male
lover?  Wouldn't one mean by this that no other interpretations could
reasonably apply?  It is a fact that water boils at 100 degrees Celsius
at sea level and it is a fact that Shakespeare is writing to his male
lover.  But wouldn't the fact that one could reasonably interpret the
sonnet otherwise suggest that to talk of an interpretation being a fact
is in some way nonsensical?  What would it look like to object that
water does not boil under these conditions and that Shakespeare was not
writing to this individual?  Aren't these two different kinds of
objections?  And aren't they different because in the first case one is
dealing with facts and in the second with interpretations?  One can
substitute interpretations but one can't substitute facts.  Either
Nietzsche did or did not write what Mike says he wrote.  If Nietzsche
wrote what Mike says he wrote, whether Nietzsche means what Mike takes
him to mean is open to interpretation.


Sincerely,

Phil Enns
Toronto, ON

p.s. For whatever it is worth, I think that Mike is mis-reading
Nietzsche.

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