Beneath Interpretation… As Problem-solving

SHUSTERMAN, R. (1991) Beneath Interpretation. In: D.R. HILEY, J.F. BOHMAN, and R. SHUSTERMAN (Eds.) The Interpretive Turn. Cornell University Press. pp102-128

“While understanding is frequently a matter of smoothly coordinated, unproblematic handling of what we encounter, interpretation characteristically involves a problem-situation. We only stop to interpret in order to resolve a problem – some obscurity, ambiguity, contradiction, or, more recently, the professional academic problem of generating an interpretative problem. The intrinsic problem-solving character of interpretation explains why it involves conscious, deliberate inquiry. Solving a problem demands thinking, seeing the obvious does not.” (126)

Annotation
Problem-solving demands thought while seeing the obvious in front of our eyes does not. Interpretation involves deliberate and conscious inquiry and is intrinsically predicated on problem-solving within a problem-situation.