What is the intentional fallacy. The Intentional Fallacy by William K. Wimsatt & Monroe Beardsley 2022-10-29

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The intentional fallacy is a term coined by literary critics W.K. Wimsatt and Monroe C. Beardsley in their 1946 essay "The Intentional Fallacy." It refers to the belief that the intentions or motivations of an artist, writer, or creator are relevant to the interpretation or evaluation of their work.

According to Wimsatt and Beardsley, the intentional fallacy is a mistake because it conflates the work itself with the intentions or motivations of the creator. They argue that a work of art should be judged on its own merits, independent of the artist's intentions or personal life. In other words, the work should be evaluated based on its form, structure, and content, rather than on the artist's thoughts or feelings.

The intentional fallacy is often contrasted with the affective fallacy, which is the belief that the emotional response or personal feelings of the reader or audience are relevant to the interpretation or evaluation of a work. Wimsatt and Beardsley argue that both fallacies are problematic because they distract from the work itself and lead to subjective or biased interpretations.

One of the main arguments for the intentional fallacy is that it is impossible to know the true intentions of an artist or writer. The artist may not even be aware of their own motivations, and even if they are, their explanations may not be reliable or accurate. Moreover, the artist's intentions may change over time or be subject to different interpretations. As a result, relying on the artist's intentions as a guide to interpretation can lead to misunderstandings or false conclusions.

However, it should be noted that the intentional fallacy has been subject to criticism and debate among literary critics and scholars. Some argue that the artist's intentions are important for understanding the context or meaning of a work, and that ignoring them can lead to a lack of depth or nuance in interpretation. Others argue that the intentional fallacy can be useful as a heuristic, but that it should not be taken as a strict rule in all cases.

Overall, the intentional fallacy is an important concept in literary criticism and theory, but it should be approached with caution and considered in context. While it is important to focus on the work itself and avoid being swayed by the artist's personal life or motivations, it is also important to consider the historical and cultural context in which the work was created and the impact it has on the reader or audience.

Intentional fallacy

what is the intentional fallacy

A phrase coined by the American New Critics W. But this is a completely different type of critique. And in fact, many wonderful discoveries were accidental. A Map of Misreading. They are not interested in creative writing pedagogy in this context or anything like that.

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Intentional Fallacy

what is the intentional fallacy

Evidence of this type is directly concerned with what the artist may have intended to do even or especially when it is not apparent from the work itself. But to me, it does. They are more abstract than poetry. Because lower level features have no meaning without references to higher level intentions and experiences, values and beliefs. Analyzing a work of art based on external evidence will likely result in the intentional fallacy.

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The Intentional Fallacy by William K. Wimsatt & Monroe Beardsley

what is the intentional fallacy

So when is death metal bad? This means that the author's intention no longer matters when the public perceives and evaluates the work in question. They are Humpty Dumptys, who want to be masters of words. Go ahead, English Literature majors, groan. But if we are talking about educating designers, or if we are talking about how designers think through their own actual processes, then of course design intention is very relevant and useful to understand. In other words, reading and writing as well is a social behavior. Proposals of "The Intentional Fallacy" The main points of "The Intentional Fallacy" follow. What is literary theory? In my work I use a lot of examples of artifacts I found, which make a certain point in MY discourse.

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The Intentional Fallacy

what is the intentional fallacy

Sometimes not more happens over 6 minutes. The Yankees win the World Series. It begins by trying to derive the standard of criticism from the psychological causes of the poem and ends in biography and relativism. Affective fallacy is the error of evaluating a text by its effect. Instead, the intention of a literary work should be understood through the lens of how the reader or speaker of the work interprets it.

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The intentional fallacy

what is the intentional fallacy

The truth is, understanding literature is like understanding life: no one can claim his understanding is the only true understanding, but all can agree on an understanding as the valid understanding within a certain space and time. The relativism argument hinges on the third point, which is another distinction, that between the public and the private. Approaches to Understanding Visual Culture. Wimsatt and Beardsley claim that author's intent, or the author's ideas about how their work should be perceived and evaluated, cannot be considered when evaluating their work. I totally despise of your average tastes, your lousy, small-minded idea of what music is and what music could by.

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theory

what is the intentional fallacy

And most of the time the meaning of the text is clearly distinct from the meaning the writer wished it to have. Where does meaning lie? A moot question of modern criticism is whether or not an objective interpretation of the text is possible. Since we always read to better understand ourselves and the world, we look at art to see how it relates to our lives. They claim that author's intended meaning is irrelevant to the literary critic. What is not literally contained in the work itself is external to that work, including all private or public statements that the artist has made about the work of art, whether in conversations, letters, journals, or other sources.

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The “Intentional Fallacy” and the “Affective Fallacy” of Interaction Design?

what is the intentional fallacy

Its premise is that readers cannot and should not attempt to evaluate an author's work through the author's intentions when reading literature, specifically poetry. What sense could you make of it? The alternative view that I wish to explore dispenses with such subjective qualities and seeks meaning only in the qualities of the artifact itself. Beardsley in the mid-20th century. Wimsatt and Monroe Beardsley explore this idea in their 1946 article "The Intentional Fallacy. In this way, the authorial definition can be a faulty lens through which to examine an author's work.

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What Is an Intentional Fallacy?

what is the intentional fallacy

When is does not deliver a death metal experience, I would say. Examining outside the text is both unnecessary and fallacious because the text itself encompasses everything we need to know in order to comprehend it. And my own position, for that matter. It is the fallacy because an author is not the part of the text; instead, text is public but not private. I encourage people to engage with me on this via comments.

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