Validity in Interpretation

by E.D. Hirsch Jr.

By demonstrating the uniformity and universality of the principles of valid interpretation of verbal texts of any sort, this closely reasoned examination provides a theoretical foundation for a discipline that is fundamental to virtually all humanistic studies. It defines the grounds on which textual interpretation can claim to establish objective knowledge, defends that claim against such skeptical attitudes as historicism and psychologism, and shows that many confusions can be avoided if the distinctions between meaning and significance, interpretation and criticism are correctly understood. It provides perhaps the first genuinely comprehensive account of hermeneutic theory to appear in English and the first systematic presentation of the principles of valid interpretation in any language.

Mr. Hirsch, associate professor of English at the University of Virginia, is the author of Wordsworth and Schelling and Innocence and Experience: An Introduction to Blake.

“Here is a book that brings logic to the most unruly of disciplines, literary interpretation. Viewing this subject within the tradition of hermeneutics, Mr. Hirsch is able to trace its origins and development with brilliant insight.  The result is a lucidly systemic and authoritative account of the premises and procedures applicable to the interpretation of a literary text.  Mr. Hirsch has performed a monumental service thereby that of reinstating the credentials of objectivism and defining the limits of the aesthetics of truth.  This study is a necessary took for anyone who wants to talk sense about literature.”—Virginia Quarterly Review

“Professor Hirsch demonstrates convincingly that objectivity is attainable in humane studies, and that it is not identified with the subject but with the evidence. A valid interpretation is not necessarily a correct one, but one which is more probably than any other on the basis of existing evidence.  He makes a subtle and important distinction between a text’s ‘meaning’ (which does not change) and its ‘significance’ (which does), and brilliantly relates meaning to understanding (the necessary preliminary to interpretation) and interpretation to explanation…” In short, this is a work which future students of literary theory cannot afford to neglect.”—Notes and Queries

Genres: Philosophy, Theology, Nonfiction, Christian, Language, Logic, Criticism

304 pages, Paperback

First published September 10, 1967

About the author

E. D. Hirsch, Jr. is the founder and chairman of the Core Knowledge Foundation and professor emeritus of education and humanities at the University of Virginia. He is the author of several acclaimed books on education in which he has persisted as a voice of reason making the case for equality of educational opportunity.

A highly regarded literary critic and professor of English earlier in his career, Dr. Hirsch recalls being “shocked into education reform” while doing research on written composition at a pair of colleges in Virginia. During these studies he observed that a student’s ability to comprehend a passage was determined in part by the relative readability of the text, but even more by the student’s background knowledge.

This research led Dr. Hirsch to develop his concept of cultural literacy—the idea that reading comprehension requires not just formal decoding skills but also wide-ranging background knowledge. In 1986 he founded the Core Knowledge Foundation. A year later he published Cultural Literacy: What Every American Needs to Know, which remained at the top of the New York Times bestseller list for more than six months. His subsequent books include The Schools We Need, The Knowledge Deficit, The Making of Americans, and most recently, How to Educate a Citizen: The Power of Shared Knowledge to Unify a Nation.

In How to Educate a Citizen (September, 2020), E.D. Hirsch continues the conversation he began thirty years ago with his classic bestseller Cultural Literacy, urging America’s public schools, particularly in Preschool – Grade 8, to educate our children using common, coherent and sequenced curricula to help heal and preserve the nation.

Reviews

[Samuel G. Parkison · Rating 3 out of 5]

My favorite part of this book was this gem I found right in the middle: it is possibly the most useless sentence written in the English language:

“In certain situations certain types of meaning are very likely to occur.”

[Zy Marquiez · Rating 5 out of 5]

Validity In Interpretation by E.D. Hirsch, Jr. exegetes and distills the plethora of issues revolving around literary interpretation.

Hirsch deftly narrows down the truth behind the much confounding premise that truth lies within subjectivity. The author logically shows how objectivity is not only attainable, but should be striven for even when individuals are told otherwise.

Admittedly, as a caveat, this book was quite arduous to read. Its precision in analysis is highly reminiscent of some logic books read by myself. The framework undertaken by the author provides him with an ironclad scaffolding for which to base his contention against the vacillating subjectivity of ‘truth’ within psychologism, historicism and more.

Hirsch undertakes the hermeneutic task of showing the reader why the meaning of a certain text and the significance of a text are different. On one hand, the significance of a text changes within whichever context it resides in, while on the other hand the meaning of a text is static and unchanging.

As the author elucidates:

“…when we construe another’s meaning we are not free agents. So long as the meaning of his utterance is our object, we are completely subservient to his will, because the meaning of his utterance is the meaning he wills to convey. Once we have construed his meaning, however, we are quite independent of his will. We do not have to accept any longer the values and assumptions he entertained. We can relate his meaning to anything we want and value it as we please.”[1].

Ultimately, Hirsch confects a sagacious treatise on literary interpretation that is superb and incisive. Those interested in literary interpretation should definitely consider implementing this into their individual repertoire.

__________________________________________________​
Source & Reference:

[1] E.D. Hirsch, Validity In Interpretation, pg. 142

[Greg Mathis · Rating 5 out of 5]

Seminal. Counter-cultural. A tour de force defense of authorial intent and the existence of objective meaning in text.

[Elizabeth]

just spend hours reading this for uni so i am adding it to feel some sense of progress in my life

[Josiah DeGraaf · Rating 3 out of 5]

Had a tendency to be overly-technical for my tastes, but overall had a lot of valuable things to say. I don't quite agree with Hirsch's argument that the meaning of a literary text is determined by the author's intentions (I tend to side with the New Critics on the meaning being in the text itself), but Hirsch put forward a strong argument for the author's intentions nonetheless. Chapters 1 (on the author's intent) and 5 (on how to find meaning in a book) were the most interesting to me; chapters 2-4 were a bit too technical for my tastes, but still had some valuable input. And the appendices were actually pretty helpful and readable. I didn't come out of this book with many altered perspectives. But Hirsch put forward strong arguments and gave me more to ponder on.

Rating: 3.5-4 Stars (Good).

[Jeff Keehr · Rating 3 out of 5]

Required reading for a required class for the PhD program at Penn State. I don't recall much of anything about it.

[Josh · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very important book in the 20th century hermeneutical discussion. For the most part, I agree with Hirsch's argument: a valid interpretation is one that corresponds to the author's intention; validity in interpretation is achieved by weighing among possible construals of the author's meaning, and deciding on the most probable interpretation.

[Gwilym Davies · Rating 4 out of 5]

Still trying to think through Hirsch's categories, and especially his concept of genre and his distinction between meaning and implications. But I found the way he framed many issues illuminating, I liked the no-nonsense common sense, and I'm glad I read it. Probably not everyone's cup of tea though.

[Joel Whitson · Rating 3 out of 5]

Wordy and dense. As a hermetic textbook it is faulty as Hirsch doesn’t profess faith. As a general interpretation book he undermines himself by constantly changing his own definition of words to suit particulars. Everything is unstable, there is no objective truth, only valid interpretation.

[Robert Tate Morrison]

Eh

[John · Rating 2 out of 5]

Dry, dense, tedious, sloppy in its supporting arguments and characterization of the opposition, almost certainly mistaken in its main positions, yet occasionally brilliantly insightful en passant.

[Jonathan Ginn · Rating 3 out of 5]

Read portions of this book. Excellent content, but muddled by a rather dense and wordy presentation.

[Corbin · Rating 4 out of 5]

I began this work thinking that I had found a foil for my views, and thus I expected to disagree with most of Hirsch's conclusions, with the task being to evaluate his arguments. Instead, I found that I agreed with most of what he said, and his arguments are usually decently constructed and explicated. I particularly enjoyed his discussions of genre and of principles of interpretation (as opposed to methods). Despite his scathing attacks of new criticism and philosophical hermeneutics (a la Gadamer), his more nuanced position is rather close to these, with one big difference: the insistence on the priority of authorial intention for meaning. On this issue, Hirsch's presumption that validity requires some form of identity seems wrong to me, as validity seems more evaluative than determinative. Thus, a satisfaction theory of validity seems more appropriate, and identifying the author's intended meaning can be one of many goals of interpretation (not the only one). But Hirsch's arguments helped me to more clearly learn to differentiate static identity, dynamic identity, and equivalence, and that the conflation of these can force conclusions that aren't warranted. This is a difficult equivocation to notice, and as a result, Hirsch's arguments often seem very compelling. Though in the end I believe he is wrong about the sole criterion of valid interpretation, his discussion of interpretation as a discipline returns his view very close to my pragmatic orientation, and I recommend the book as an exercise in thinking about the complexities and normativity of interpretation.

[sologdin · Rating 2 out of 5]

a phenomenologist's defense of authorial intent doctrine, adopting a distinction between the 'significance' of a text (that is, how it signifies to a reader) and its 'meaning' (presumably set in stone by the author). unpersuasive on the whole but serious nevertheless and therefore worthy of attention.

[John · Rating 5 out of 5]

i'm not a big fan of hirsch's more recent stuff, but this is a classic.

[Brett Adams · Rating 4 out of 5]

Worthwhile book that points out the obvious: yes, authors usually have a meaning to convey, and, yes, that meaning can be recovered (give or take) from their text.

[Hafl · Rating 5 out of 5]

Both cool and cute.

[Jrod]

Valuable, but distasteful. Hirsch is so hard to read. He is an educator and literary critic, but his contribution is valuable for biblical hermeneutics. Hirsch's work is a clear and logical argumentation for interpreting any piece of literature through authorial intent.