Source text

The two terms primary source / secondary source refers to the science of history on the tradition context of sources to each other. From a secondary source can learn, what was the primary source in the (possibly lost ). From a primary source is only to talk when secondary sources are dealt with in the relevant context, otherwise it is simply the term source.

Term

The most common term for knowledge, from which one draws is likely to be a source of information. In the history of science is sharply divided the sources in the strict sense of the secondary literature, discusses the sources or other texts.

Among the many ways to distinguish sources with each other, is one of the pair of terms primary source / secondary sources: Primary sources are often, but not necessarily, information from witnesses or of the action involved. Secondary sources are second-hand reports, in turn, cite the primary sources.

Use

In the history of science, it comes to determine the reliable historical source about a subject, because it may be that the secondary source the contents of the primary source render them incorrectly. However, it may also be that in individual cases a secondary source "because of greater objectivity in reporting, better overview of the relationship, etc. a primary source of value exceeds " says Ahasuerus of Brandt. If a primary source is lost, you can with the help of secondary sources to reconstruct and learn at least the approximate contents of the text of the primary source policy.

In literary studies, the primary sources are the literary texts, while secondary sources are all those texts, is " the development task," the source client. Gero von Wilpert tricked manuscripts, manuscripts, prints, documents, archives, memoirs and so on, " whose knowledge complements the eigtl scientific exploration of the works themselves and expanded ."

Many ancient works have been lost to posterity. However, today's archeology often knows something of the lost works: In the extant works, quotes or comments find it or about it. These works are secondary sources about the works that are lost.

Accruals

The two terms primary source / secondary source stands for itself and has nothing to do with the concept pair of source / secondary literature. Both primary sources and secondary sources are simply " sources ", and secondary literature refers to the literature on a topic. In the history of science and the term -pair source / representation will be used. Here, the term " representation " any narrative about past events, regardless of whether it has been published as " secondary literature ".

In the English -speaking world is expressed using a pair of opposites for the sources (primary sources) and the secondary literature (secondary sources). Tertiary sources referred aids such as specialized dictionaries, handbooks, atlases, history, etc.

Not as a secondary source is the source edition, although the problem of the secondary itself is similar here.

Examples

• A person has taken part in an event and writes a report about. Person B has read this report and told them in a letter. In this case, the report of the person A is the primary source to the event, the letter from person B is a secondary source. If the historian wants to know what was in the report may have been lost, help the relevant information in the letter.

• Ahasuerus by Brandt called Goethe's Italian Journey Diary (1786 ), a primary source from the later Italian Journey (1816 ).