No Hidden Meanings

First published in 1984. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

In 'Meanings and Other Things' 14 leading philosophers explore central themes in the writings of Stephen Schiffer, a leading figure in philosophy since the 1970s. Topics range from theories of meaning to moral cognitivism, the nature of paradox, and the problem of vagueness. Schiffer's responses set out his current thinking.

Poetry moves us. Sometimes a poem changes our life. Then we analyze it as a cultural artifact with no special connection to us. An extensive critical apparatus enables us to develop sophisticated interpretations, but we dismiss as "idiosyncratic" even life-changing experiences of poetry. We need an apparatus to unfold our experience of reading poems into a more effective relationship with the world. Modern poets in particular wrote prophetic verse for this purpose. Archetypal psychology and phenomenology describe the soul that modern poetry moves in us. Three prosodic mechanisms activate the psyche. The polyphony of accentual and quantitative versification creates depth to lure the soul. Aural images reshape the reader’s stream of consciousness. Readers follow the movement of blocks of verse across the expanse of the page with what Maurice Merleau-Ponty terms the phenomenal body. These mechanisms reach us at the collective level of consciousness and generate the power we need to solve big, collective challenges, such as race, climate change, and inequality.

What does a reader do when his favorite author dies? The sudden and unexpected loss of a steady stream of preferred reading material is a shock to the reading diet, and changing diets is never an easy thing. Here's one reader's answer: write your own book, paying tribute to the author and saying thanks, all while struggling with life's humorous observations along the journey.