The Dogmatic Character of Imposed Interpretation

Abstract

How to understand and handle the text is an important question raised by many scholars with reference to the theory of imposed or forced interpretation. It is indeed difficult to identify and distinguish imposed interpretation from the results of interpretation. The crux of imposed interpretation lies not in the outcome of textual interpretation, but in the way such interpretation is understood and approached. The theoretical impetus and tendency of imposed interpretation, as a way and means of achieving understanding and interpretation, are often determined by the philosophical preferences and cognitive approaches of the interpreter. Philosophical and cognitive analysis highlights the dogmatism of imposed interpretation, allowing us to identify and comprehend what imposed interpretation is from a new perspective. Imposed interpretation has its philosophical roots in the dogmatism of ancient Greece; this was taken to an extreme by Leibniz and Wolff, but was then subverted by Kant’s criticism. The expropriation of extrinsic theories, in particular, means that interpreters start from a given theoretical goal and use text to prove theory. Imposed or forced interpretation thus becomes inevitable; otherwise, it would be hard to achieve the goal of such interpretation.