I99I KEYNES S GENERAL THEORY 1. 2. The Relativist Approach The contradictions within the objectivist/essentialist approach to interpret- ation have led some to adopt the relativist approach. Rather than viewing interpretation as the discovery of the author's meaning hidden within the text the relativist approach treats interpretation as the product of the reader imposed on the text. Thus the analysis of interpretation moves from being text- centred to being reader-centred. There is no single essential meaning within a text, only a variety of reader-determined meanings. Interpretations are always relative to the frame of reference within which the reader is operating. This implies that there is no objective standard for a rational evaluation of alternative interpretations. The choice of interpretation is made by the individual reader on the basis of a subjectively determined frame of reference Any interpretation can only ever be treated as consistent with its owl underlying frame of reference. In this sense, one interpretation is as good From the relativist perspective, to ask the question 'What does Keynes's General Theory really mean? "is really to ask What does kema sinerpretation General Ther mean to me, given my frame of reference ?'. Readers choose which makes sense within their own world-view. For example, since the neo- Keynesians adopt the choice-theoretic and market-theoretic perspective of mainstream economic theory, it follows that they interpret Keynes's general Theory to be dealing with the effects of imperfections such as non-atomistic market structures or imperfect information which prevent the price mechanism from operating effectivel The relativist approach, however, also suffers from self-contradictions. To lopt the relativist approach is to accept that the interpretive process is determinate. Relativism implies that 'anything goes; consistency with the text is always relative to a subjectively determined frame of reference. This validity of the process of interpretation itself into question. The relativist approach denies that interpretation can be the pursuit of under- tanding beyond that which is relative to the individuals own frame of reference. But this runs counter to the explicitly stated aims of those who engage in interpretation. Interpretations are advanced on the basis of intellectual and cognitive properties which are deemed to transcend subjectivist In order to justify the public presentation of an interpretation, interpreters adopt an objectivist/essentialist approach when advocating their own particular interpretations. Relativism cannot be followed consistently since it would deny the intellectual properties which interpreters always claim for their own interpretations. Relativism is a position that can be entertained but never occupied. The relativist approach, through the force of its own logic, becomes self-contradictory. Relativism always reverts to a form of back-door objectivism in which writers use the relativist approach to criticise the interpretations of others but claim authenticity for their own interpretations Practised in this form, relativism is but a variant of the 'reader-generated confusion' thesis