When translation constraints between horizons of social meaning create the cardinal effect of social distinction, a pertinent sociology of multiple distinction can disclose its own reference toreality, such as that of any other context, only as a kind of »indirect reference«. Joachim Renn`s analysis takes a media-theory detour: Initially it focuses on the meaning of different communication media for the formation of potential objects of reference that is logical in itself, and then it focuses on the reference claims of sociology itself. That shows: This pragmatic reconstruction of a medial »indexing of the world« does – unlike the widely-spread constructivism – justice to the realistic intuition of sociology as an empirical science.
