 A principle of methodological empiricism in interpretation: Interpretation must always be based on, and kept faithful to, exact observations of relevant linguistic (and other) evidence. This applies when the interpreter investigates word-usages in order to discover meanings (a point that is already prominent in the Fragments); when he attempts to pin down a work’s genre, or the purposes and rules that constitute it (see esp. Shakespeare); and (to anticipate a bit) when he makes conjectures about an author’s individual psychology (see esp. On Thomas Abbt’s Writings from 1768).