Humanistic knowledge is inseparable from the interpreter’s interest.

Evidence

There is never interpretation, understanding, and then knowledge where there is no interest. This may seem like the most pedestrian truism, but it is exactly this fairly obvious truth that is usually ignored or denied. For an American scholar to read and decode a contemporary Arabic or Japanese novel involves a totally different sort of engagement with an alien object than that of a chemist decoding a chemical formula. Chemical elements are not intrinsically affective and do not engage one’s human feelings, though of course even they may trigger emotional associations in the scientist for wholly extrinsic reasons. — Edward W. Said, Covering Islam, 352

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Commitment to memory is unnecessary when the interpreter loves the subject and the people. — Freeman Tilden, Interpreting Our Heritage, 532; Interpreter’s timeless principles rest on love of subject and of people — Freeman Tilden, Interpreting Our Heritage, 674

Related

• Interpreter’s timeless principles rest on love of subject and of people (similarity 0.83)
• Knowledge of other cultures requires conscious effort crossing distance. (similarity 0.83)
• Interpreters must feel the beauty they interpret or they fail (similarity 0.81)
• Commitment to memory is unnecessary when the interpreter loves the subject and the people. (similarity 0.81)
• Interpretation is an art that draws on science, not a science (similarity 0.79)
• Interpreters should begin from the visitor’s question, not their own message (similarity 0.78)