RHETOR 20 Chapter Notes - Chapter 3: Stanley Fish
Document Summary
Fact of agreement is testimony to the power of the interpretive community. This account provides what the objectivist argument cannot supply: a coherent account of disagreement. Disagreements are not resolved by facts (since they emerge in context) but by the means by which the facts are settled. Ex. in literary criticism, each proposes his reading as the correct one and the same words can be cited in support of different interpretations. Assumptions of fact are at stake in any dispute. Pluralist: there is something in the text which rules out some readings and allows others. Evidence: we all reject unacceptable readings and we more often than not agree on unaccetable readings. Booth, citing pride and prejudice: surely we could not go on disputing at all if a core of agreement did not exist . Disagree: text cannot be location of the core of agreement!
