To see how this moment arrives, con

To see how this moment arrives, consider the multileveled self-reflexive nature of Bennett’s interpretation. When he argues that the crux of the problem lies in the destruction of information, his inter-pretation is engaging in an erasure of previous information analo-gous to what is happening within the heuristic, according to his in-terpretation. Of course earlier interpretations also had to compete against received ideas to gain acceptance. But in Bennett’s case, the operation performed by his interpretation is mirrored by the opera-tion that he sees the Demon performing. Moreover, he recognizes that his interpretation reinscribes within the heuristic cultural forces operating at the moment of interpretation. Thus the heuristic is seen as a kind of permeable membrane connecting the disciplinary tradi-tion to the culture. Just as the culture is becoming aware that old newspapers do not spontaneously disappear but pile up, so the de-mon is interpreted as needing to clear “yesterday’s newpaper” out of his head. As metaphor is enfolded into metaphor, the scientific tradi-tion is forced to confront the fact that thought, language, and social context evolve together. Social context affects language, language affects thought, thought affects social context. The circle is closed. Objectivity has given way to hermeneutics.