indeterminacy

indeterminacy, 1. (1) in reader‐response criticism, any element of a text that requires the reader to decide on its meaning (see also ambiguity, crux, scriptible);

2. (2) in deconstruction, a principle of uncertainty invoked to deny the existence of any final or determinate meaning that could bring to an end the play of meanings between the elements of a text (see différance). To proclaim the ultimate indeterminacy of meaning need not mean that no decisions can be made about the meaning of anything (or at least it cannot be determined that it means this), only that there is no final arbiter of such decisions. Some deconstructionists, however, have the habit of calling the meanings of literary works ‘undecidable’. See also aporia.

The noun has one meaning:

Meaning #1: the quality of being vague and poorly defined
  Synonyms: indefiniteness, indeterminateness, indefinity, indetermination

Look up indeterminacy in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

Indeterminacy or underdeterminacy may refer to:

• Indeterminacy in computation (disambiguation)
• aleatoric music and indeterminacy in music.
• Statically indeterminate
• Indeterminacy (literature) a literary term
• In set theory and game theory, the opposite of determinacy

In law:

• Indeterminacy debate in legal theory
• Underdeterminacy (law)

In linguistics:

• Indeterminacy of translation
• Referential indeterminacy

In philosophy:

• Indeterminacy (Philosophy)
• Indeterminism, the belief that not all events are causally determined
• Deterministic system (philosophy)
• Philosophy of science#Indeterminacy of theory under empirical testing
• Underdetermination

In physics:

• Quantum indeterminacy
• Uncertainty principle
• Scientific determinism

See also

• Nondeterminism (disambiguation)
• Determinism (disambiguation)
• Indeterminate (disambiguation)

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