Abstract

Martin Heidegger notoriously fostered the idea of truth (aletheia) as ‘Being’ revealing or ‘unveiling’ itself in the world of humanity. ‘Meaning’ or ‘truth’ is revealed, not reached by argument. One might call this a way of viewing truth as inherent in reality, and capable of manifesting itself in an epiphany, albeit that for Heidegger, ‘it is the very fact that one is outside that makes possible the revelation of truth or meaning’.1 Similarly, structuralist theory sees meaning as inherent in the different systems it observes (e.g., linguistic, social, or cultural), and as manifesting itself in the ways the various elements in such systems interrelate.