What is the Meaning of a Text?

At a recent meeting of the U District Philosophy Cafe we discussed various theories of how a person might determine the meaning of a religious text. In my opinion, theories of textual interpretation fall along a spectrum. At one end of the spectrum you've got formalists who claim meaning is contained within the text itself. This is a static meaning that is independent of the context within which the text was either written or read. Formalist meaning is 'embedded' in the text and it is the reader's job to 'extract' it as objectively as possible. At the other end of the spectrum you have subjectivists who claim meaning is defined exclusively by how a reader reacts to the text. This reaction is determined by the person's unique cultural, historical and psychological background. To a subjectivist the text itself has no inherent meaning because a new meaning is created every time a person reads it.

I don't agree with the formalist position. I don't think it is ever possible to eliminate a reader's psychological and sociohistorical background from the reading process. If I'm afraid of wolves, my reading of Little Red Riding Hood is going to be very different from someone who was raised by wolves. Our readings will be different no matter how much psychological therapy or academic training I go through. In fact, if I go through wolf recovery therapy that is going to have its own unique affect on how I read the text. I also don't buy the idea that we can create an objective method (such as New Criticism) that can lead us past our personal biases to an objective reading. There is no such thing as the view from nowhere.

That said, I don't fully agree with the subjectivists either. Meaning doesn't lie solely in the realm of the reader's private psychology. If that were the case, it would be impossible for a reader to discuss the meaning of a text with someone else. The closest we could ever get to a public conversation about textual meaning would be a comparison of the social, historical and psychological backgrounds that led to our individual reactions. I think discussing the meaning of a text serves a unique and useful social purpose beyond just comparing our psychologies.  For me, meaning is neither a static essence embedded in the text nor the simple sum of emotions experienced by a reader at a given moment in time. Rather it is a complex, distributed, dynamically changing assembly that includes many interrelated components such as the intent of the author, the historical background from which the text arose, the psychology of the reader and even physical characteristics of the text itself such as font and paragraph structure. Some of these factors are static but others such as the sociohistoric background of the reader are dynamic. Interpreting a text is the process of assembling these components into a coherent and useful whole. 

Belief in Evolution: Slow but Positive Progress

The most recent Gallup poll on belief in evolution shows a small but positive (+4%) increase in the number of Americans who accept the scientific consensus, agreeing that "Human beings have developed over millions of years from less advanced forms of life". Currently 54% of Americans share this viewpoint which is good news for those of us who agree with Theodosius Dobzhansky's famous statement that "Nothing in biology makes sense except in the light of evolution." Unfortunately 40% of Americans still agree with the young earth creationist view that "God created humans in their present form within the last 10,000 years."  This is an astonishingly high number, however it is actually the lowest level of support for young earth creationism in the history of the Gallup poll.

American Belief in Evolution
(Data Source: 2010 Gallup Poll)

So why do so many Americans reject the theory of evolution? Level of education is one factor. The less educated you are the less likely you are to believe in evolution. For example, only 43% of Americans whose education level is high school or less believe in evolution.

Another key factor is a person's religious beliefs. According to a survey by the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life, the more fundamentalist your religion the less likely you are to accept evolution.

Percentage of Adherents Who Believe in Evolution
(Data Source: Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life

So how does America compare with other countries when it comes to belief in evolution? According to a study published in the August 2006 issue of Science, the United States ranks second to last with Turkey being the only country in the survey with a lower acceptance of the scientific consensus.

Ranking of Countries by Belief in Evolution
(Graph Source: Science, August 2006)

The study identified two reasons for America's low ranking: 1) widespread religious fundamentalism and; 2) the ongoing politicization of science. Since the former is unlikely to change in the foreseeable future, and the latter is outside the control of scientists, educators and pro-science citizens, any strategy that hopes to increase evolutionary literacy in the US needs to take these issues into account.

Evolution is the foundation for modern biology. A thorough understanding of it is an absolute necessity for any person going into biology-based professions such as genetics, agronomy, medicine, etc. To remain competitive in the global economy, and possibly to even just survive the 21st century, we need to do much better than our current 54% acceptance. The Gallup poll shows progress has been slow but positive so we are doing something right, but to make serious gains I think we need some fresh new ideas.