no document can be fully sourced
- some sources will always be more crucial
- some sources will always be more pertinent
- other mechanisms by which to measure usefulness of a source
- eg particularly succinct or comprehensive
- primary, secondary, details of provenance
- BUT
- There’s always the possibility of other sources being found and added
- eg Eyewitness testimony that wasn’t previously divulged or future events bringing an old concept back into discussion
- the summation of the sources available to any person making any sort of statement based on research is everchanging and dependent on circumstance
- it is reasonable to assume that all statements are time-location-situation-experience contextual and that there is no ultimate state of completeness that the documentation of a topic can reach
- only in combination at universal scale can there be ultimate truth so from singular human perspectives we can only rely on trust in fellow humanity with common goals and the most widely intersubjective observations, as is the basis of scientific methods