Moderate versus Strong Intentionalism: Knapp and Michaels Revisited

In a series of articles published from 1980 to 1992, literary theorists Steven Knapp and Walter Benn Michaels advocated what the Author calls "strong intentionalism," the thesis that the meaning of a text is identical to the meaning that its author intended it to communicate. At the recent Conference on Legal Interpretation in San Diego, they vigorously defended their thesis. In this Article, the Author argues that their defense of stong intentionalism fails, and that the thesis is false.