Cornelius' argument comes from a school of academic discourse (largely
post-structuralist) in which the reader must be freed from the tyranny of
the
author: if meaning is derived substantially not from facts but from the way
that we link facts so that they signify something, then by allowing a
multiplicity of linkage we allow a multiplicity of signification, and so the
'different readings' of critical theory.
The view is hermeneutic rather than hypothetico-deductive, the approach
Edmund-Lee advocates. By engaging with, and fully submersing oneself in,
the
data, one seeks to gain insights into the data: the data does not have an
intrinsic 'meaning' which is 'out there' and which can be established by
deduction: meaning is too culturally determined for that. This is a view
finds some support not only from chain-smoking black-clad French lefties,
but
a school of philosophy of science, led by Thomas Kuhn.
Hypertext allows the reader to move through the data at ease (in theory!),
providing their own reading. This leads to the 'liberal dilemma', which
some
contributors have indirectly alluded to: how are we to (indeed ought we to)
say that one reading of the data is better than another, and what about
people
who don't have time to read an entire thesis and develop their own view ab
initio? As Dworkin and Finnis have argued in philosophy of law, we must be
willing to say that some interpretations are unacceptable, either morally or
on the basis of skill.
The idea of hypertext as permitting the death of the author is misguided: it
denies the respect that should be owed to Cornelius for spending years
slogging over his data. We should go first to what Cornelius has to say, in
good faith and with an open mind, and in the knowledge that we can test out
what he has to say by looking to the data which he has used. We can also,
and
this is a largely separate process, do our own work on his data and
interpretation, because of the modular nature of the work. For this reason I
would concur that there should be a clear statement of 'thesis', either as a
separate part of the hyperdocument, or else as strong links in the
hyperdocument.
Robert Daniels-Dwyer
Department of Archaeology, University of Reading, England
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