Arguments Against Intentionalism

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Interpreting works of art is not an easy task and everyone may interpret the pieces differently. The author or artist may have created their artwork with one intention for it to interpret one meaning and intentionalists would agree that their intention is the only way it should be interpreted. Then there are anti-intentionalists, who believe that the meaning and intention of the art is in the text or piece itself and there are hypothetical intentionalists, who think the meaning is a mix between what is extracted from the text and what the author intended. Hick mostly explains the interpretations of literary works but the same could be applied to many other forms of art such as music performances, movies, plays, and many others. Interpretation depends on the person observing the artwork. I am an anti-intentionalist when I look at art. The way I interpret something may be completely different from everyone else but it’s my interpretation. When one interprets something, it comes from the way the art piece makes them feel and when they acknowledge this they abstract their own meaning of the piece. That is what interpretation is all about, the way something makes you feel and what it means to you. …show more content…

Dancers, for example, must show expression of what they feel in order to move the audience. They interpret in their own way just as readers interpret the literature they read. As for music, everyone has a different taste in music; therefore, different interpretations and meaning of the music could be expected. Music is linked with opinions, memories, and how it makes one feel at the time is how they interpret the sounds. Interpretation can be described similarly to the famous quote “beauty is in the eye of the beholder.” It’s the perception of the different individual visualizing the art

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