The Designer Fallacy and Technological Imagination

Abstract

Earlier in the twentieth century, literary theorists developed the notion of an “intentional fallacy.” This was the notion that the (meaning of a text lay with the author’s intentions: if these could be uncovered, then the meaning of the text was established. One can easily see how, if this is the only true way to establish meaning, there could be difficulties. What if the author was long dead? Or, even if the author was living, how could one tell that he or she was telling the truth? What of unintended meanings, or meanings that fit but were not thought of in advance? Thus, the intentional fallacy recognizes such difficulties and cannot be considered an adequate account of interpretation.