The lost art of "interpretation"
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This is not only Furtwangler at his best, but also Beethoven at his best. If you are reading this, you probably know what is in store for you here. What will surprise you is the sound quality. M&A have done a masterful job. These performances literally reach out of the speakers and grab you (both the sound quality grabs you, as well as Furtwangler). This 9th transcends its sound to such a degree that it is unbelievable; I think, personally, it is the best of the Furtwangler Ninths (and I love the other two for other reasons). Speaking in the terms of the ancient elements, these performances (and transfers) are Fire, whereas others are water, or earth, or just plain insipid, as so many have been in the past 15 years.
325771
I got very excited when I saw some extracts of this book and the promotional videos on youtube, so I ordered it on Amazon. As I was very eager to begin, I did not want to wait, so I also bought the audiobook version, read by the author, available on Google Drive, and so was able to start reading immediately. The book has two parts: the first part is a general introduction to the four world ages of European art, and the second is composed of specific analyses of individual artists of the post-modern epoch. Ebert points out that there is no single center or capital of art in the contemporary world, and that the major artists are geographically dispersed, so one can call the two parts Chronos and Gaia.

1) Chronos. The book begins with a very interesting synthesis of the typology of historical periods proposed by Jean Gebser and of that proposed by Peter Sloterdijk in the SPHERES trilogy. His synthesis includes the ideas of Gilles Deleuze, Jacques Derrida, Michel Serres, Marshall Mcluhan, Hans Belting, Martin Heidegger, Arthur Danto, Cornelius Castoriadis, Vilem Flusser, Joseph Campbell, Mircea Eliade, and many more thinkers. Ebert distinguishes 4 major epochs in the semiotics of art, and more generally of our relation to being: the pre-metaphysical period - the artist is a shaman, the metaphysical or perspectival period - the artist is an optician in Euclidean visual space, the modernist or aperspectival period - the artist is an archetypologist of geometric or anthroplological forms in multi-dimensional space, the contemporary or post-aperspectival period - the artist is a monadologist in a liquefied quantized fom-space.

2) Gaia. Ebert argues that the contemporary period began not in 1962 with Andy Warhol's "Brillo Boxes", but in the period immeditely after World War II with the Abstract Expressionists. Pollock and Rothko correspond to a moment of effacing and liquefying the modernist "iconotypes", and dissolving the shared multi-dimensional macrosphere of modernity. They herald in the contemporary period, where the artist can no longer presuppose a universal organised semiotic system, and is obliged to select and combine the signifiers of the present and the past, and hybridise them with new signifiers, into idiosyncratic, temporary, partial, multiple organisations, with no universal legitimacy. Initially the living center of art moves from Paris to New York, only to be disseminated into a mobile polycentric dispersive phenomenon spread over the whole planet. From Parisian art has become Gaiatic. Ebert devotes chapters also to Basquiat, Beuys, Richter, Kieffer, Beksinski, Nerdrum, Bacon, Hirst, Kapoor, Kounellis, Boltanski and situates their singular work within the general episteme of the contemporary world.

This is an ambitious work taking in a vast period of history, from the ancient Mesopotamians and Egyptians to the contemporary world. Geographically Ebert moves from New York through the German artists to London, Rome, and Paris. The artists examined are very diverse, and allow Ebert to fill in his general frame with many more fine-grained analyses. Further, his categories are interdisciplinary or transversal, in that they apply to much more than artists and art works. To be sure, art has become a proliferation of singular semiotic processes, but frequenting the diverse art works that are elucidated with the help of Ebert's categories we find that our own lives are elucidated too. This is more than an academic manual, it is allso a useful guide to our own individuation in the pluralist ocean of foam that constitutes the semiotic and ontological background of our contemporary world.
356839
This collection of essays, all of which originally appeared in the late 1960s and 70s, is essential reading for every would-be historian or even amateur history buff.  White unpacks interpretation and meaning in history, arguing that literary or psychic tropes govern the discourse of history just as clearly as they are manifest in the other arts and sciences; and that history that lacks self-consciousness of the constitutive forces of its own discourse can rightly be criticized as inherently meaningless, if not merely a propaganda tool for the justification of the status quo.
Historians are artists, White argues:  they represent their understanding of history in their writings, they do not reproduce the history itself; their creations should be understood as we understand modern art, and not encumbered with outdated assumptions about 'realism' as the validating quality by which they can be judged.  White notes in "The Burden of History," the first essay, that we do not judge the works of an artist or a scientist by asking ourselves if we perceive the world in exactly the same way, but rather we look to see that their representations do not include any deliberate falsifications.  We don't compare the works of John Constable and Paul Cezanne to see which of them painted landscapes 'better' -- instead we appreciate the particular vision of truth each artist demonstrated in his work.  So with historians, whose true calling, White believes, is to free humanity from deterministic history by pointing out that the present is the result of human choices, and encouraging people to consider the power their choices might have in shaping the future.
Although it helps to have some familiarity with nineteenth century historiography, the works of Hegel, Marx, Nietzsche, Freud and Weber in order to understand White's arguments, this background reading isn't strictly necessary, and White's exposition of the arguments he uses as illustrations is educational for people who haven't had this kind of exposure.
38421
EVERY Bible translation (or paraphrase) is also an interpretation.  That means that the translation carries with it the translators agenda, with linguistic, theological and philosophical biases throughout.  Several negative reviewers have commented that because this one apparently conveys interpretations that conflict with their own, that the Mirror Bible is somehow "heresy," "not-inspired," or "not the word of God." Hopefully thoughtful readers can recognize this fact and not review based on disagreement with interpretation.  I like a lot of what the author did with this Greek translation/paraphrase.
4034641
After Art and the Artist, how is it that the world has not shifted on its axis, how has it not revolutionized our understanding of human existence.  Just glimpse around the book has gone all but ignored and misunderstood.

To be sure the book is about art - artist - audience (aesthetic pleasure).  But it is also a book about the human existential condition - domination of the social over the individual - our limited capacity of knowledge (i.e. personal epistemological doubt) - the indifference of nature toward human existence (i.e. ontological terror) - the possibility of overcoming these human existential restrictions.

Actually, Rank articulates the impossibility of escaping socio-cultural domination, epistemological doubt, and ontological terror, in our corporal form.  Hence human beings escape into speculation into non-corporal form, via the process of creation, play, and the pleasure of the aesthetic as a latent promise of, or possibility for, immortality.

In the first four chapters Rank is dealing with the relationship between the individual and society.  Rank argues that human beings always necessarily exist and develop in a social context; hence individuals necessarily develop a cultural consciousness.  Once an individual becomes aware of their culturally determined consciousness, consequently cultural determined motivation, there can emerge an interest in the discovery of the self, i.e. who we are beyond our cultural determination.

The Artist, much like the individual generally, is a cultural phenomenon.  Her or his Art must begin and be articulated as a historical genre.  At the same time Artists often attempt to reach beyond genre, i.e. beyond their cultural condition.  This is the Artist's attempt to discover the self, beyond the culturally determined self.

Chapters five through ten are historical and anthropological chapters.  Here Rank is attempting to show that human beings have historically had a deep interest to understand beyond our cultural relativity, as an immortal spiritual self (importantly, Rank never claims this proves that the human soul is immortal, but more humbly, human psychological health seems to have historically depended on such a belief).  The aesthetic expresses beauty, the non-corporal, and ultimately according to Rank, the possibility, and only the possibility, of immortality.

Chapter eleven through fourteen are then addressing Beauty and Truth as beyond the culturally relative; why the Artist attempts to escape historical genres, while also being pulled back by interpretation as "genre"; why social success of the Artist is a type of internal and spiritual failure; and finally the urge toward creativity and the process of creation itself is an urge for personal redemption.

It should not be forgotten this is a book of human social theory.  Rank wants to understand the aesthetic from the perspectives of both the artist and audience, but also from a historical perspective or art history/genre, and from a philosophical perspective Beauty, Truth, and the urge for Immortality.
2443547
"Douglas-Klotz has taken the Syrian Aramaic text of the Lord's Prayer, the Beatitudes, and several of the sayings of Jesus and rendered them in periphrastic translations which stretch the potential meaning of the Aramaic as far as he can, to break open new meanings in the mind of the reader. Beyond this, he suggests "body exercises," which use the Aramaic text as a source of mantras by which you can internalize this expanded meaning of the sayings.

From a linguistic perspective, the book contains errors. For example, Douglas-Klotz says the roots for "holiness" and "cleanliness" (qdsh and kshr, respectively) are related; this is simply not true. Furthermore, the whole book rests on the demonstrably shaky scholarship of George Lamsa, who tried to pass off the Syriac version of the New Testament as the original words of Jesus many years ago.

Theologically, what's going on here is the collapse of the eschatological tension which we find in the Beatitudes; the Beatitudes emerge without a context in the social dynamics of Jesus' age (which is shown in the Lukan version perhaps more clearly than in Matthew). Thus Douglas-Klotz offers us beatitudes which have been wholly taken into a mystical framework.

The translation is a fanciful paraphrase which may lead you into cosmic thinking, but the scholarship is questionableand that makes this reviewer exceedingly uneasy. I accept that the quest for a rootedness to "creation spirituality" in the words of Jesus is a noble enterprise, but this book is one step forward, two steps back, as far as I can see. Unfortunately you have to have a working acquaintance with Aramaic rendered in the Nestorian Syriac alphabet to see this, which means that not many people in the projected audience will catch the errors. Unsuspecting people will buy the book, thumb through it  and say, "Wow! Look at this funny writing. This guy must have really done his homework. The book will be sold in ordinary book stores and new age shops, so when you hear your people quoting it, remember that you were told about it in these pages. JCR"

Original Source
Jay C. Rochelle. "Currents in Theology and Mission", Vol. 18 Issue 1 - Feb 1991, p. 53
3653406
For some few years now, I have been working through language, symbols and scripture studies in effort to understand ancient constructs; meaning, the way in which our ancestors understood and viewed the world. The author, Walton, does an excellent job of explaining the importance of grasping ancient world views relative to the study, and therefore understanding of biblical scripture.  He emphasizes the usefulness of a comparative analysis; looking at the 'mind-set' of the ancients who were living within a world of longstanding paganism.  For example, how did the ancients view the cosmos, the role of dieties, the role and function of man on earth as a reflection of the cosmos? Through his comparative and contrasting analysis, Walton in no way diminishes the substance of Christian or Hebrew faith, but rather, expands and illuninates the documented basis of scripture by placing the writings into their proper setting--into the thinking of that time. I highly recommend this book for anyone who would like to attempt to more fully understand the history and nature of man; the history and nature of the relationship of man to diety--God.  Therein is a type of 'retro-psychology'--figuratively 'getting into the heads' of our ancestors. Many thanks to Mr. John Walton and to those contributors he cites as sources. A job well done.
1207655
Although my journey through the pages of Night Film has ended; my experience of Night Film (something more intangible?) will forever trail me, hovering above my consciousness, casting over me a mystical shadow from an imperceptible source, never withering in it's presence or perpetuity.

Much like those who encounter Cordova (a central character of the book), I've been transformed, liberated from misplaced confidence in surface perceptions of reality, irrevocably exposed to the mystifying beauty of the unknown & an insatiable thirst for more of it.

Although it may seem as if I'm being overly-ambiguous (or dramatic) while failing to provide any relevant insight regarding the content of the novel as a means to substantiate my enthusiasm, well... that's because I am.

This book cannot (justifiably) be measured in the traditional format of book reviews. It is the product of its own individual exclusivity; something raw, organic, & irrational, like a mother's intuition or dj vu.

This book appropriates a clich in that it is one you must experience ("read" seems weak in this context) to understanding or reach any bit of revelatory clarification on the depth of its nature. What one draws from the novel speaks much more about the reader than it does the work of fiction (or its author). No amount of content or plot generalizations I could provide would afford you a closer proximity to understanding the contingency of it's allure and quality.

However, before you dismiss my review, labeling it as the nonsensical prose of biased adoration, first allow me to validate its purpose; it may, in fact, be THE most appropriate review of what thrives within the pages of Night Film (and, maybe more importantly, what doesn't).

That being said, should you have found my after-thoughts on this book as the maddening, pretentious praise of something allegedly sacred, fantastical, & mystifying while failing to provide a hint of cohesive evidence affording these opinionated claims credence...

If you cling to ostensible clarity, definitive absolutes, "truths" that remain inevitably excempt from the overt opposition of logic (Oh, the irony!) that threatens to defy the contingencies on which your deeply held beliefs are weakly supported...

If your beliefs, as you should hold them, remain immune to the threat of rational opposition; transcending logic and the only tools we are equipped with to differentiate truth from fiction...

If you would much prefer to stay blissfully ignorant, guarded by walls of refuge erected by fantastical gullibility; safely isolated "sealed inside like blind caterpillars in an eternal cocoon" when encountering an uninvited whisper in the dark, beckoning you to step out into a world that will liberate you from the slavery of assurance in which you mistakenly found comfort (like a captive perversely given to Stockholm Syndrome)

Should you identify your comfort zone as anywhere within the parameters of these variations of indoctrinated single-mindedness, placing confidence in your understanding of reality...

THIS BOOK MIGHT NOT CATER TO YOUR NARROW PERSPECTIVE.

Then again, maybe this book IS for those in denial of truth. Especially when the truth suggests that a shadow may not move independently of its host...

Book of the year? At least. With the most effortlessly read 600+ pages I've ever consumed, the novel ended, leaving me with an insatiable desire to experience it again from the cocoon. The danger in being aware of a world thriving outside of your haven lies within the irrevocable nature of that awareness.

*brief statement in quotation courtesy of Stanislas Cordova. Cordova himself, courtesy of the masterful mind of Marisha Pessl (however hard that may be to accept).

Jordan
1212543
Looking at the confusions of the New Age movement, in a long list of occult and superstitious confusions, the perspective of the skeptic as presented by Shermer would seem a fundamental discipline of thought--and yet... The problem is that the stance of positivistic scientism, armed with an incomplete theory of evolution, has gone into reverse and produced a view of man that is unrealistic, and not concordant with a greater tradition of human self-enquiry, however vexed that might be at its fringes and in its degenerations. It is always the same double whammy that Kant points to at the beginning of his great Critique, the double bind of the metaphysical and the narrow empiricist. The influence of Darwinism has been especially confusing here in underwhelming at the crucial point and producing an account of man that is reduced to something history contradicts. It is a point Wallace sensed, and as Arthur Koestler reviews that in his Janus man has an 'evolutionary' potential that he is almost spastically incapable of understanding, but which seems to have emerged early in his evolution, and certainly not as adaptation.
Modern Darwinism has thrown the skeptic off course here. What is the point of categorical rejection of telepathy? Everyone senses it, but noone can ever get it straight. It is a subject about which one is condemned to know nothing, and yet whose denial is likely to prove false. The great Indian sutras suggest the right approach, more practical, without the baggage of reductionist metaphysics. Target the essential, awareness and its development. Then, if the zone of occult noise arises, note it and pass on, without getting caught in these demented sideshows of the magical madmen.
All this said, the track record of this Shermer-style skepticism, however problematic, is actually quite good in practice. Conmen are rife here. The endless exploitations of human suggestibility have produced a wretchedly confused generation of New Age groupies, and the ambulance service of the "Skeptics" is an important approach. The problem is that people believe weird things because they are distorted versions of rather less than weird intimations of man's enigmatic nature. One might do better with a razzle-dazzle approach combining the spiritual discipline of a genuine and rigorous yogic psychology, a Kantian style metaphysical reserve, next to the all-important, but flawed, methodology of the developing sciences. But it is important to realize that Darwin will play you false here. Darwin just won't do it on the real 'evolutionary psychology' of man.
341840
Bouwsma's study is commendable in its attempt to provide extensive textual support for his portrait of John Calvin.  Unfortunately, compiling a large compendium of quotations does not itself a sound argument make.  Bouwsma suffers from interpreting Calvin's language as a window into the Reformer's internal self-awareness.  To avoid an obvious fallacy of self-intention (interpreting all of an author's words to be an expression of his thoughts about himself) Bouwsma relies upon psychoanalytic assumptions about Calvin's unconsciousness expressing itself under the pressures and anxieties of sixteenth-century Europe.

Richard Muller, a scholar of Reformation and Post-Reformation historical theology has given an extensive rebuttal to Bouwsma's claims in his 2000 book,&nbsp;<a data-hook="product-link-linked" class="a-link-normal" href="/The-Unaccommodated-Calvin-Studies-in-the-Foundation-of-a-Theological-Tradition-Oxford-Studies-in-Historical-Theology/dp/0195151682/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?ie=UTF8">The Unaccommodated Calvin: Studies in the Foundation of a Theological Tradition (Oxford Studies in Historical Theology)</a>.

If you really want a good biography of Calvin, pick up Bruce Gordon's latest biography, entitled:&nbsp;<a data-hook="product-link-linked" class="a-link-normal" href="/Calvin/dp/0300120761/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?ie=UTF8">Calvin</a>.

For an excellent exposition of Calvin's own ideas about his profession, see Randall Zachman's book,<a data-hook="product-link-linked" class="a-link-normal" href="/John-Calvin-as-Teacher-Pastor-and-Theologian-The-Shape-of-His-Writings-and-Thought/dp/080103129X/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?ie=UTF8">John Calvin as Teacher, Pastor, and Theologian: The Shape of His Writings and Thought</a>
615902
This book is written from the perspective that the Church has missed out on the meaning of the term "people of bread" found in the Bible as an image of God's people.  In Vondey's mind, the Church has completely missed the point of the Lord's Supper and we have taken the analogy of being people of the bread and cast it to the wayside.  This book is his response to this problem.
 His response is to take the term "people of bread" and look at it from many different angles to see exactly what it would mean in different contexts.  To do this, he looks first at the idea of images and suggests that the Church has lost its ability to "imagine."  It is his viewpoint that imagery was much more prolific in biblical times and that by allowing it to become a lost art, we have lost our ability to interpret some of what God is telling us.  He then looks at the actual idea of breaking the bread and the connotations such an action might have.  In it, he finds lessons regarding hospitality, freedom, duty, and responsibility for the Church.
 I'll be honest, my initial response to this book was fairly negative.  I felt it was an excellent example of what happens when someone takes an analogy too far.  I then read his conclusion: "People of Bread has been an exercise in reviving the theological imagination.  As an ecclesiological task, this exercise has attempted to liberate the image of bread from the exclusive context of the Lord's Supper and to paint a vivid picture of the social, moral, missiological, sacramental, ecumenical, and eschatological nature of the Church."  Its at that point that I had to stand back and say "well done."  Vondey accomplished his mission.  He took the idea of "people of bread" and looked at it from every angle.  He wasn't necessarily trying to prove a point, but to point out a problem that the Church has.  I think he did that quite well.
 I will say this, though: it is not a light book to be read by the faint-of-heart.  Its not a devotional book.  This book has amazing insights in it, but it takes commitment to find them.  If you're up to the challenge, then by all means: read the book.
2207432
A book that can change one's perspective on a classic text!
3406805
This book alerts us to the false paths of either believing in science as gospel, without understanding how it actually operates, or distrusting science generally, again out of ignorance.  It outlines how scientists themselves most responsibly evaluate their work and the work of their peers, conveying a picture of science as representing the best we can know about a particular matter at a particular time.

Most of all, it tells us about those scientists who have betrayed their calling - either by selling out for financial or political gain, by genuine ignorance of a field other than their own specialization, or both. It shows a history of misrepresentation that has impeded our ability to understand and address a variety of significant problems: the ozone layer, the health effects of tobacco, and climate change.  An important book for our times.
608213
This book presents some intriguing information and historical-cultural analysis on Chinese ideographic characters.  The historical and cultural analysis is very informative.  The authors trace back possible meanings and origins of the complex characters of Chinese ideographs.

It was helpful to understand how various ideas are built up from combinations of simpler symbols, to tell a story of meaning, that often seemed to tell much about the context in which it developed.  It appears, from a general historical-comparative perspective, that this method offers great promise for reconstructing details of cultural exchange and connections or merging of the many ethnic streams in the history of Asia.

It is possible that historical reconstructions have already been done on aspects of Chinese culture in this manner.  But I have not had experience in the Chinese ideography, and this introduction was of great interest.

Both the authors served in Chinese contexts for long years as Christian missionaries, and Kang is a native speakers of a Chinese language, now retired in Singapore.  They were particularly concerned to find ancient connections to the monotheistic concepts of God and the accompanying moral codes in the Semitic heritage as recorded in the Old Testament.

It is their contention that originally, Chinese culture was also based on a simple monotheism, and other forms of religion and devotion developed later as this heritage was forgotten.  Some of the examples, however, seem over-drawn and analysis includes some pretty shaky connections.

I was surprised by the high instance of "could be," "might refer," and similar phrases in trying to make connections.  One surprising aspect of the portrayal of some the biblical situations they reference is the cavalier handling of the actual biblical text.  I was disappointed that the authors added a lot of detail and extended the context of several of the biblical passages to make their supposed connections work.

They give explanations and interpretations that the biblical text itself does not contain, and it is questionable that it could support them in many cases.  Let me put it this way: the explanations of some of the biblical passages, and the contexts that make the Chinese connections work, are drawn from other perspectives or contexts than the simple biblical passage itself.  I would like to see some of these investigated from a linguistic and historical perspective.  Some of the connections are challenging and informative.

The basic premise argued in this book is that the original religious perspective of the ancient Chinese culture was monotheistic with similar concepts as those portrayed in the biblical book of Genesis.

The authors point out, though, that the development of the Chinese ideographs that seem to indicate a monotheistic origin would have been developed before the time the book of Genesis was written.  Thus the knowledge was not derived from Hebrew/Jewish sources after the writing of Genesis (which occurred comparatively late in history), but separately derived from the same or similar primitive awareness in human knowledge.

This is of interest in the category of curiosity. But there just seem to be too many steps of supposition intalongthe way to their goal.  There was some solid critical analysis done here, but it needed to be taken further, to more clearly establish the connections.  Those connections shown do not definitively indicate a definite connection to any direct line of culture or faith back to the Hebrews, as they have presented it.  There are too many details for which there could be other explanations, and the actual connections do not seem to be of a higher occurrence than would be accounted for by ordinary chance coincidence.

At any rate it was an interesting study, and I would recommend the book for its value on insights into ancient Chinese culture and language.  This stands on its on aside from any contention related to Hebrew or Christian beliefs.
4224882
A collage of beautiful writings that require a unifying synthesis explaining the underlying reason for this shift in focus
2646515
Bernard Ramm's book almost has to be viewed as a tale of three halves. The title is extremely apposite both in terms of the subject matter that is covered but also in the approach that is taken. The approach is very much one of an even handed survey of all methods of interpretation that can be classified as Protestant. In fact towards the end the author made mention of the `approach that we have been promoting' and I had to think quite hard as to which of the methods discussed was actually the one the author favored. It must also be said that whilst this book is fairly dry and scholarly in approach it is not overly technical. It abounds in references to others works and bibliographies but it does not require significant existing knowledge of the subject matter in hand.

The effect of this distinctive approach had a very different effect upon me for the three major themes that the book carried. The first third is a survey of the historic schools of interpretation. This spanned from the work of the early fathers through to modern philosophic schools. Some of the work on early interpretation I found historically interesting. The work on more modern schools will be less useful to someone avowedly conservative.

The second third is a very detailed and systematic analysis of conservative protestant hermeneutics. As a reference work the degree of distinction obtained is incredible. For example the section on `theologies verses theology' raised a concept I had known but never found a way to verbalize. However if viewed as a `how to' or motivational treatise it was painful in the extreme. This is probably a 'must read' for someone heavily in hermeneutics; however it is hard work.

The third section however was a look at typology, prophecy and parables. This section was simply excellent. Ramm's even handedness here shone brilliantly. He was able to point out flaws and inconsistencies in, for example, the literalists allowance of types that would almost certainly raise barriers if written by a different author. He essentially argues for a millennial and literal approach whilst simultaneously urging a greater appreciation of those passages that do require more spiritualized interpretation. His ability to clearly handle subtle issues requiring finesse make this one of the few texts I have read that have a chance of (slightly) changing someone's thinking on this subject.

One closing comment to make is that whilst this book was printed in 2004 that is the fifth printing of the third revision; the original is a nineteen fifties book. I generally have no problem with aged texts; however some of the sections on historical progression and trends definitely show their age.
219337
Determining the meaning of a sentence in everyday situations often requires that we attend to the context in which these sentences are used. This book presents Stanley's (and in some cases Stanley & co-author) attempts to develop a theory of the role context plays in determining meaning. The book is a collection of previously published essays on a single topic rather than a multi-chapter work that first introduces the topic, considers competing theories, and then offers evidence and argument for his preferred position. But, many of the essays are (or quickly becoming classics), e.g. "Context and Logical Form."

Many of the essays are technical and so if you are unfamiliar with formal semantics, the semantics-pragmatics distinction, semantic minimalism and contextualism, I would suggest another work to start, e.g. Francois Recanati's "Literal Meaning," Emma Borg's "Minimal Semantics," or Cappelen & Lepore's "Insensitive Semantics."