Authorial Meaning and Significance: Revisiting the Hermeneutic Theory of E.D. Hirsch

Abstract

E.D. Hirsch Jr. is an indispensable hermeneutic thinker. He is an advocate of objectivehermeneutics and authorial intent and thus critiques the reader-response interpretivetheories. In defence of the author, he vehemently criticises the reader-response theories’arguments for the banishment of the author and proposes valid reasons to retrieve therelevance of the author’s original meaning. To address the objectivity of the author’sintention and the subjectivity of interpretation, Hirsch proposes his idea of meaning andsignificance.
The distinction between meaning and significance plays a crucial role in attackingrelativism of interpretive theories that disregard the possibility of objectivity and validityof authorial meaning in interpretation. By asserting that meaning is fixed and whatchanges is its significance to readers, Hirsch maintains the objectivity, validity, andauthority of the author in the interpretive process. He insists that interpretation is acognitive process. Thus, Hirsch’s theory of meaning and significance forms thecornerstone of his hermeneutic philosophy and reflects his broader commitment toobjectivity in interpretation. While recognising that texts yield new significance over time,he claims that valid interpretation must be grounded in the reconstruction of the author’soriginal meaning. In this way, Hirsch’s objective hermeneutics is unique and different inmany respects. Thus, the paper revisits the key aspects of his hermeneutics and itsimplications.