Verbatim quote · from the corpus

“The short answer here is that a shared attentional state is a necessary condition for language, and the proof is simply that language works. While each individual at the scene may differ in some ways, the originary hypothesis claims that they must understand the essential meaning of the sign in the same sense, or else the sign would not function as it did and does. We need to remember that language/meaning is fundamentally social and thus by definition shared. The argument of Generative Anthropology is that language functions as it does only on the condition that it is social in origin and throughout its history. Derrida’s mistake is the primal error of Romanticism, which is to suppose that the private scene of representation precedes the social, public scene of representation. If that were true, then yes, communication would be well-nigh impossible and any shared meaning undecidable. The hypothesis that all language shares a common origin validates the hermeneutic intuition that communication is possible. The originary hypothesis speaks directly to the question of context posed by hermeneutics and Deconstruction. The one essential context for interpretation is the originary scene. Any particular instance of representation is understood as derived historically from that scene.”

— Eric Gans, Deconstruction, Hermeneutics, and Generative Anthropology – Guest columnist: Peter Goldman · Saturday, November 23rd, 2013 · Chronicles of Love & Resentment