Text within a Text

The term text is used ambiguously. One could compile a list of sometimes very different meanings various authors have given this word. What is characteristic, however, is something else: today it is undoubtedly one of the most commonly used terms in the human sciences. As science has evolved, it has from time to time dredged up such words; and the precipitous increase in the frequency of their use in scientific texts has been accompanied by a loss of the requisite precision. They do not so much designate a scientific concept with terminological accuracy as emphasize the timeliness of a problem and indicate an area in which new scientific ideas are being born. The history of such words would be a unique index of the movement of science.