Li Shang-yin’s ‘The Ornamented Zither’ as a Test Case for Analytic Theories of Interpretation

Szu-Yen Lin

doi:10.33134/eeja.426

Li Shang-yin’s ‘The Ornamented Zither’ as a Test Case for Analytic Theories of Interpretation

Estetika: The European Journal of Aesthetics

Volume 61 (2024): Issue 1

By: Szu-Yen Lin

Open Access

|Mar 2024

Abstract

In this paper I test major analytic theories of interpretation, including anti-intentionalism, the value-maximizing theory, actual intentionalism, and hypothetical intentionalism, against Li Shang-yin’s poem ‘The Ornamented Zither’. I argue that, based on the results of the test, all of these theories face grave difficulties. If their supporters want their accounts to be sustained in the debate over interpretation, they need to address the worries I raise.

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