Author
Mohammad Ali Barzanooni
Summary
The language of gnosis is of significant importance and a contemporary issue in the esoteric level of text interpretation. The research of inner meanings implies methods and approaches by means of which, in the communication with the text, statement or a distinctive written paper, the senses are decoded and the meaning they hold. Following research approaches are possible:
a. A hermeneutic approach, in which the focus is on the recipient ofthe message rather than the speaker’s intention. This is a particularkind of recipient’s dialogue with the text, in order to understand thetrue meaning of the sentences.
b. A semantic approach, in which the speaker’s intention holds themeaning, whereas it is upon the recipient to deduce from what thespeaker said and intended. Two methods are important in this approach: “methodological individualism”, which deals with differentverbal analogies, linguistic and syntactic principles, with the intentof structural decomposition of the text, and “methodological holism”, which is deductive in nature i.e. leads from the understanding of the entirety to the understanding of individual sentences.
c. A reciprocal method, which is engendered by the connection of twoapproaches, based on one sample and a research program, and wherethere is an interaction between the speaker and the listener i.e. thewriter and the reader. The meaning of the message and the text is theresult of methodological reciprocity between the recipient and thetext. The speaker’s intention merges with the recipient’s demands. Thewriter’s i.e. speaker’s intention is revealed through an interactionalrelation between the reader i.e. text’s recipient i.e. the statement.
Key words
the language of gnosis, signifier (dāll), signified (madlūl), denotation (dalālat), hermeneutic approach, semantic approach, reciprocal method
URL: https://www.ibn-sina.net/en/the-language-of-gnosis-in-contemporary-perspective/