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What does "the systems of meaning… take over this absolutely plural text" mean in the following paragraph?

Is knowledge dispassionate and absolute, or forever ambiguously dependent on the slippery meanings we give to words? The postmodernist writer Roland Barthes encapsulates this in a piece of literary criticism: ‘the systems of meaning…take over this absolutely plural text, but their number is never closed, based as it is on the infinity of language.’

Art and Science, Sîan Ede; pub I.B.Tauris & Co, 2014

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    Absolutely nothing.
    – deadrat
    Commented Jul 9, 2015 at 11:13
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    Where are you getting this stuff? I realize this might be due to my limited understanding but most of it seems to be written just to show off how many long words the author knows while not actually proving he understands any of their meanings. I wonder if the "plural" in that sentence above wouldn't be better substituted with puerile though that probably maligns children. (see I also know long words, especially when I have access to a dictionary.)
    – DRF
    Commented Jul 9, 2015 at 11:19
  • It's postmodernist prattle.
    – deadrat
    Commented Jul 9, 2015 at 11:29
  • Interesting that this passage has come up in another place within the last week.
    – Andrew Leach ♦
    Commented Jul 9, 2015 at 11:34
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    There is such a thing as pluralism (google.co.uk/search?q=pluralist). Perhaps that's what is meant: pluralist text. Just a guess.
    – Avon
    Commented Jul 9, 2015 at 11:42

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I would hazard to say that Barthes is pointing out the recursion of the question.

Is knowledge dispassionate and absolute, or forever ambiguously dependent on the slippery meanings we give to words?

The question seems to imply that the two possibilities are mutually exclusive, but is that the reality? Can you gain knowledge without the language to formulate it? Can you transmit knowledge without the language to communicate it? Is knowledge dependent on the ability to express it in words? If you can't communicate it to someone else, is it really knowledge? If so, does that knowledge change as the language changes?

Does this question mean different things to different people? Will it mean something different at some unspecified future time? If someone answers this question, will the meaning of that answer change with the meaning of the question?

The question is acting on multiple levels and this may be the intent of its description as plural.

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