 True enough, his opponent would say in reply, but what that shows is that the author’s intention isn’t identical with the meaning of a text or needed in all cases to correctly interpret a text. What it doesn’t show is that the author’s intention, if present, is irrelevant to interpretation. Besides, the reply would continue, printer’s errors and similar cases are parasitic on normal cases in which there is authorial intent. Our conception of a text is that of an intentionally created artifact of a certain kind, and cases in which authorial intent is altogether missing are admitted as texts only by conceptual courtesy, based on the similarity of such texts to standard, intention-laden texts.