Common sense versus reality

We are frequently misguided by our intuition (common sense) in judging if something is possible or not. Both in technology (it is hard to predict what happens) and in very fundamental questions related to fabric of reality. Sometimes, we reject some information only because our common sense says that it is impossible, but common sense can be wrong. This text shows evidence of such wrong judgments of common sense.

About existing and not existing referents of proper names – anthropocentrism in onomastics

In the article the author widely covers the problem of names’ reference, especially proper names. The phenomenon of reference is discussed on the basis of Ogden/Richards triangle, showing the tri-elemental relation between the symbol, the concept and the referent. The author is pointing out the practice of inaccurate use of terms in the scientific discourse of research into reference and he sorts it out in the terminology by showing the difference between, among others, the reference, the designation and the denotation. The author’s considerations are full of examples which illustrate the essence of these terms and their relations. From the conclusion about the symbol and the concept he moves to the description of reality whose elements are the nominated objects. The extra-linguistic reality in which objects – capable of becoming the referents of various expressions – occur is described in accord with Kantian anthropocentric philosophical thought.

The article discusses the bases of the contemporary concept of the theory of sources. I have made an attempt at re-interpreting this basic concept of historical methodology based on the semiotic concept of signs and reality.