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Interpretation Quotes

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Interpretation Quotes

“When two things occur successively we call them cause and effect if we believe one event made the other one happen. If we think one event is the response to the other, we call it a reaction. If we feel that the two incidents are not related, we call it a mere coincidence. If we think someone deserved what happened, we call it retribution or reward, depending on whether the event was negative or positive for the recipient. If we cannot find a reason for the two events' occurring simultaneously or in close proximity, we call it an accident. Therefore, how we explain coincidences depends on how we see the world. Is everything connected, so that events create resonances like ripples across a net? Or do things merely co-occur and we give meaning to these co-occurrences based on our belief system? Lieh-tzu's answer: It's all in how you think.”

RealityTruthTaoismInterpretationCoincidenceBeliefsProjectionCause And EffectRelativitySubjectivityViewPerspectivism
Book:Lieh-tzu: A Taoist Guide to Practical Living
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“The magician isn’t just performing sleights-of-hand but is also guiding our thinking by what’s called “magician’s patter.” The magician explains what’s happening. Of course, the magician isn’t saying what’s really happening, but the magician is using words and body language to trick our minds and make us think something is happening when it isn’t happening. In the same way, the devil, the culture, and our sinful flesh work to influence the way we interpret our experiences. Some of the tricks are extremely effective. Some of the tricks deliberately manipulate us. Other tricks are just natural deceptions.”

MindSinExperienceFleshTricksDeceptionManipulationInterpretationMagician
Book:Exposing the REAL Creation-Evolution Debate: The Absolute Proof of the Biblical Account
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“...Whilst on board the Beagle I was quite orthodox, and I remember being heartily laughed at by several of the officers... for quoting the Bible as an unanswerable authority on some point of morality... But I had gradually come by this time, i.e., 1836 to 1839, to see that the Old Testament from its manifestly false history of the world, with the Tower of Babel, the rainbow at sign, &c., &c., and from its attributing to God the feelings of a revengeful tyrant, was no more to be trusted than the sacred books of the Hindoos, or the beliefs of any barbarian. ...By further reflecting that the clearest evidence would be requisite to make any sane man believe in the miracles by which Christianity is supported, (and that the more we know of the fixed laws of nature the more incredible do miracles become), that the men at that time were ignorant and credulous to a degree almost uncomprehensible by us, that the Gospels cannot be proved to have been written simultaneously with the events, that they differ in many important details, far too important, as it seemed to me, to be admitted as the usual inaccuracies of eyewitnesses; by such reflections as these, which I give not as having the least novelty or value, but as they influenced me, I gradually came to disbelieve in Christianity as a divine revelation. The fact that many false religions have spread over large portions of the earth like wild-fire had some weight with me. Beautiful as is the morality of the New Testament, it can be hardly denied that its perfection depends in part on the interpretation which we now put on metaphors and allegories. But I was very unwilling to give up my belief... Thus disbelief crept over me at a very slow rate, but was at last complete. The rate was so slow that I felt no distress, and have never since doubted even for a single second that my conclusion was correct. I can indeed hardly see how anyone ought to wish Christianity to be true; for if so the plain language of the text seems to show that the men who do not believe, and this would include my Father, Brother and almost all of my friends, will be everlastingly punished. And this is a damnable doctrine.”

BeliefHellDoubtAtheismEvidenceInterpretationSkepticismMiraclesMetaphorsDivine Revelation
Book:The Autobiography of Charles Darwin, 1809–82
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“We are told that in translation there is no such thing as equivalence. Many times the translator reaches a fork in the translating road where they must make a choice in the interpretation of a word. And each time they make one of these choices, they are taken further from the truth. But what we aren’t told is that this isn’t a shortcoming of translation; it’s a shortcoming of language itself. As soon as we try to put reality into words, we limit it. Words are not reality, they are the cause of reality, and thus reality is always more. Writers aren't alchemists who transmute words into the aurous essence of the human experience. No, they are glassmakers. They create a work of art that enables us to see inside to help us understand. And if they are really good, we can see our own reflections staring back at us.”

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Author:Kamand Kojouri
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“Imagine that a literalist and a moderate have gone to a restaurant for lunch, and the menu promises "fresh lobster" as the speciality of the house. Loving lobster, the literalist simply places his order and waits. The moderate does likewise, but claims to be entirely comfortable with the idea that the lobster might not really be a lobster after all—perhaps it's a goose! And, whatever it is, it need not be "fresh" in any conventional sense—for the moderate understands that the meaning of this term shifts according to context. This would be a very strange attitude to adopt toward lunch, but it is even stranger when considering the most important questions of existence—what to live for, what to die for, and what to kill for. Consequently, the appeal of literalism isn't difficult to see. Human beings reflexively demand it in almost every area of their lives. It seems to me that religious people, to the extent that they're 'certain' that their scripture was written or inspired by the Creator of the universe, demand it too. - pg. 67-68”

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Author:Sam Harris & Maajid Nawaz
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“[A] religious text has depth. The reader of Kafka's texts, however, can feel no such confidence in even the partial recuperation of deeper meaning. As Adorno notes, it is characteristic of Kafka's texts that "words, [and] metaphors in particular, detach themselves and achieve a certain autonomy." The experience of reading Kafka in this sense is the very opposite to theological interpretation: it defeats the religious hope that one might pierce the surface of these autonomous words to reach a level of ultimate meaning. Not without cause does Adorno call Kafka "the parabolist of impenetrability".”

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Author:Peter E. Gordon
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“No algorithm exists for the metaphor, nor can a metaphor be produced by means of a computer’s precise instructions, no matter what the volume of organized information to be fed in. The success of a metaphor is a function of the sociocultural format of the interpreting subjects; encyclopedia. In this perspective, metaphors are produced solely on the basis of a rich cultural framework, on the basis, that is, of a universe of content that is already organized into networks of interpretation, which decide semiotically) the identities and differences of properties.”

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Book:Semiotics and the Philosophy of Language
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“In order to get over the ethical difficulties presented by the naive naturalism of many parts of those Scriptures, in the divine authority of which he firmly believed, Philo borrowed from the Stoics (who had been in like straits in respect of Greek mythology), that great Excalibur which they had forged with infinite pains and skill—the method of allegorical interpretation. This mighty 'two-handed engine at the door' of the theologian is warranted to make a speedy end of any and every moral or intellectual difficulty, by showing that, taken allegorically or, as it is otherwise said, 'poetically' or, 'in a spiritual sense,' the plainest words mean whatever a pious interpreter desires they should mean.”

DivineAuthorityDifficultyScriptureInterpretationEthicalGreek MythologyTheologianNaturalismAllegoryStoicsExcaliburAllegorical Interpretation
Book:The Evolution Of Theology: An Anthropological Study
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“Hören Sie, Corso: Es gibt keine unschuldigen Leser. Wir alle übertragen unsere persönlichen Perversitäten auf die Texte, die wir lesen. Ein Leser ist die Summe dessen, was er vorher gelesen und im Fernsehen und Kino gesehen hat. Zu den Anhaltspunkten, die der Autor gibt, wird der Leser immer noch seine eigenen hinzufügen. Und genau hier lauert die Gefahr: Das Übermaß an Literaturkenntnissen könnte auch Sie dazu verleitet haben, sich ein falsches oder irreales Bild von Ihrem Gegner zu machen.”

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Book:The Club Dumas
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“All texts are, always, to various degrees, contradictory, multifarious, polysemic. This is not license for epistemological anarchy, according to which anything, any reading, always goes. But it is to acknowledge that no next, whatever its author's (or reader's) intent, can have a simple, singular meaning. Every text will generate something like a tangle of meanings and connotations, more or less concentrated around a core, more or less protean or stable, according to political, social and linguistic context. As one playful formulation has it, rather than being straightforwardly 'about' something in particular, every text is inevitably surrounded by a 'vibrating aboutness cluster'. The context, content and range of that cluster must be accounted for as part of an analysis. Some writers in some situations may strain against rhetorical shenanigans, for example striving for the specificity of logical notation: the cluster of reasonable meanings of such texts may well thus be less diffuse than for those which, say, revel in pun and performance. But a text with one 'true' meaning is a chimera. Analysis is not closure, but an attempt to discern reasonable meaning(s) close to the core of that cluster, and to contest those that range too far from it.”

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Author:China Miéville
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“Kant bases upon the fact, that in all religions old and new which are partly comprised in sacred books, intelligent and well-meaning teachers of the people have continued to explain them, until they have brought their actual contents into agreement with the universal principles of morality. Thus did the moral philosophers amongst the Greeks and Romans with their fabulous legends; till at last they explained the grossest polytheism as mere symbolical representations of the attributes of the one divine Being, and gave a mystical sense to the many vicious actions of their gods, [...] in order to bring the popular faith, which it was not expedient to destroy, into agreement with the doctrines of morality. The later Judaism and Christianity itself he thinks have been formed upon similar explanations, occasionally much forced, but always directed to objects undoubtedly good and necessary for all men. Thus the Mahometans gave a spiritual meaning to the sensual descriptions of their paradise, and thus the Hindoos, [...] interpreted their Vedas. In like manner, [...] the Christian Scriptures of the Old and New Testament, must be interpreted throughout in a sense which agrees with the universal practical laws of a religion of pure reason”

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Book:The life of Jesus critically examined / by Dr. David Friedrich Strauss. Tr. from the 4th German ed. by George Eliot. 1913 [Leather Bound]
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“Empiricists say, “Where’s your evidence?” In fact, our evidence is every piece of evidence ever gathered by science. Our disagreement is not with the evidence, it’s with the interpretation of the evidence. Every scientist interprets the evidence via the Meta Paradigm of empiricism and materialism, leading to wholly bizarre and irrational conclusions. The correct way to interpret the evidence is via rationalism and idealism. When has any scientific experiment ever refuted rationalism and idealism and proved the truth of empiricism and materialism? Scientists are so ignorant and philosophically illiterate that they don’t even realize they are engaged in interpretation rather than factuality.”

ReasonPhilosophyScienceEvidenceMaterialismInterpretationParadigmRationalismEmpiricismA Priori
Book:God Is Mathematics: The Proofs of the Eternal Existence of Mathematics
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“Such is the paradox of all thought which disputes the validity of the real: when it sees itself robbed of its own concept. Events, bereft of meaning in themselves, steal meaning from us. They adapt to the most fantastical hypotheses, just as natural species and viruses adapt to the most hostile environments. They have an extraordinary mimetic capacity: no longer is it theories which adapt to events, but the reverse. And, in so doing, they mystify us, for a theory which is verified is no longer a theory. It's terrifying to see the idea coincide with the reality. These are the death-throes of the concept. The epiphany of the real is the twilight of its concept. We have lost that lead which ideas had over the world, that distance which meant that an idea remained an idea. Thought has to be exceptional, anticipatory and at the margin -- has to be the projected shadow of future events. Today, we are lagging behind events. They may sometimes give the impression of receding; in fact, they passed us long ago. The simulated disorder of things has moved faster than we have. The reality effect has succumbed to acceleration --anamorphosis of speed. Events, in their being, are never behind themselves, are always out ahead of their meaning. Hence the delay of interpretation, which is now merely the retrospective form of the unforeseeable event.”

ThoughtRealizationInterpretationSimulation Hypothesis
Book:The Perfect Crime
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“Si consideramos el sentido de esta manera, es decir, teniendo en cuenta sus relaciones con la institución o las instituciones, advertimos que en realidad se trata de un problema muy candente; desde hace siglos, casi todos los combates ideológicos de la humanidad, en cualquier caso de la humanidad occidental, son combates del sentido; en teología, en sociología o precisamente en filología, las polémicas, incluso combates muy violentos, siempre tienen lugar en torno a una interpretación.”

InterpretationGuerraBarthesTeologiaPolemica
Book:Variaciones sobre la escritura
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“We are trying to find out the meanings which lay in the minds of the originators of the Masonic Symbolisms as the reasons why they instituted these symbolic lessons. Let us remember this point very carefully and also the further fact that all these symbols date back to a period far anterior to the time of Christ.”

InterpretationFreemasonry1927
Book:The Lost Key: An Explanation and Application of the Masonic Symbols
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“So the recognition of the obvious fact that many of the Rites and Symbols of Masonry were devised from the standpoint of a believer in Rebirth or the evolution of the soul, does not involve any necessity on the part of the Masonic student to believe the same or to make it a part of his religious dogma any more than the Egyptologist, when he deciphers a prayer to Ra, the Sun god, carved upon some Egyptian tomb thousands of years before the time of Christ, is thereby compelled to believe in the existence and power of Ra and begin to worship him with the same prayer.”

InterpretationFreemasonry1927
Book:The Lost Key: An Explanation and Application of the Masonic Symbols
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“Although social relationships may be crippled by acrimonious minefields, manipulative psychological gambits or mysterious undercurrent power games, a number of social tell-tale flickers might help us in finding a lucid interpretation of hazy circumstances. ("Trompe le pied.")”

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Author:Erik Pevernagie
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“Thus, though there is a psychological tendency of accepting the judge’s verdict and reasoning as expert reasoning and tinge of finality adorned to his discretely reasoned judgement, what cannot be forgotten is even judges are human with a fallibility in veins and to err is but human, hence placing  complete dependence on judicial reasoning also would be a folly, but it can be accepted as  a workable hypothesis, in my opinion.Further only concrete strands of tested reasoning and principles drawn from those concrete raison d’être , can be considered as one of the ingredient in concrete law making.”

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Book:General Laws and Interpretation-Sultanate of Oman-Part I Perspicuous Edition -2014
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“Changing words isn't so hard. Recognizing a particular sound, swapping it for another - that was easy even for your ancestors. Reading what happens in your head and the heads of all the beings around you, now that is difficult. Finding equivalents in one culture for the basic concepts of another - that is really difficult. I say the word vegetable and the translator tells you something like 'edible moss'. So, yes, it's a miracle, but it's a dangerous miracle. It makes you think you understand beasts and you never do. When it comes down to it, you can't even understand your own species.”

InterpretationTranslationsInterpretingLost In Translation
Book:The Inferior
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“Or, to put it another way, presuppositional apologetics--such as that developed by Francis Schaeffer, but also by Cornelius Van Til and, to a degree, Herman Dooeyeweerd--rejects classical apologetics precisely because presuppositionalism recognizes the truth of Derrida's claim that everything is interpretation (though I am admittedly radicalizing their intuitions).”

PhilosophyInterpretationPostmodernismApologeticsDerridaPresuppositional Apologetics
Book:Who's Afraid of Postmodernism?: Taking Derrida, Lyotard, and Foucault to Church
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