In Search of Referentiality

Photography

Reference (from Latin referre = to carry back, to put in relation) is generally understood as the relationship or reference of a linguistic sign to an extralinguistic object or an extralinguistic fact (referent).”

Source: Hanuschek S. (2009) Referentialität. In: Klein C. (eds) Handbuch Biographie. J.B. Metzler, Stuttgart


We are searching. We are finding. We are believing. We are knowing. We believe that we know.

We feel obliged to the truth. The truth is a system of Dependency variables. It’s about references – from one track to another.
There is reality, or what we think it is. And the way we perceive it. And the way we are able to perceive it. Our perceptual apparatuses are limited. And then there is description of world. The world in our communication. So we are acting at least in these two worlds – the perceived and the described one.

Descriptions are per se limited. The world is more complex than describable. Historiography is therefore always falsification due to the amount of information and influencing variables. We think and act within abstractions. Moreover, we are not purely rational beings. It’s getting more complicated than expected.

We’re searching. We are finding. We are believing. We are knowing. We believe that we know.