Tired of Meaning by Richard Anderson — How Judges Should Judge by Jeremy Waldron

“Underpinning the work, or theory, of Hays and Eisenman is a presupposition that architecture is part of a signifying process, that it is about making and interpreting meaning. Whiting and Somol are tired of meaning.” I do have to admit that after so many years of interpreation being possible of anything etc.etc. the world does seem damp and moldy with meaning at the moment. “Judges applying their own values are likely to do much more for the public good than politicians sitting in the pork barrels that we call legislatures…if it is worth deferring to the antiquated clauses of the Constitution or to some well-established statutory or doctrinal rule, it is only becuase a modicum of value can be gained from not dissappointing the expectations of those who are more invested… in the meaning of these materials.”  Basically, if you take the nihilistic extremism of interpretation, tha anything can mean anything then you don’t need to pay attention to history, it’s more important to focus on the present good. “Semiological tools and concepts produced a discursive field in which meaning, or the negation of meaning, was the dominant form of theoretical engagement.” Basically everything had to connect back to the big topics of semiotics, it became annoying, now these guys are dropping it. “The Framers were educated men… They did not seek to freeze their own judgements on this matter…” By leaving certian legal clauses vague, the framer’s of the constitution sought to open up the field of interpretation for certian laws allowing people through out the ages the flexibility to interpret them at their own will. They set certian limits by their words, but they didn’t specify what each one means.

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