The Impossibility of Interpreting Texts

In the twentieth century, we realize that this isn't practicable. For example, writing is always open to reconstru re interpretatione deration and so on. The impossibility of determining the final meaning of texts does not lead david olson to conclude either, that all interpretations are equal or that interpretation is impossible. It's this very difficulty which has led to the conventions of explicitness and clarity which characterize the literate mode of thought. We should hold all the harder to the modern project of stabilizing the meaning of texts through careful reading and writing.