In Response to Avery (Answering All the Questions)

In Response to Avery (Answering All the Questions)

In response to Nehamas’ claim that an ideal interpretation is one that is able to answer every possible question raised about a text, and that this an impossible ideal, Avery states that this ideal is “quite possible”. Avery posits that, while a writer may not initially come up with all of these answers, it is possible over time.

I certainly agree with Avery that it would be an impossible task to answer all possible question related to a text in one draft. However, I question the statement that all questions can even be answered with an unlimited amount of drafts. As Avery states in his post, “one can raise a great deal, if not an infinite number of questions about any given text”. If this is true, it seems that it may be an impossible task (although a certain ideal) to develop an interpretation that can answer every single question related to a text.