In this penetrating study of the concept of meaning, Gerhard Sauter shows that contrary to popular belief the human quest for meaning is a relatively recent development, arising only after the deconstruction of metaphysics at the meaning of history, the meaning of their labors, their sufferings, their lives. In an attempt to construct new areas of orientation, meaning has become a dominant term in hermeneutics, in philosophy of language, in psychology, in sociology, in social theory and in all domains influenced by them, including politics. In former times the term meaning related to statements that could be proven as either true or false, while the term sense marked the ability to perceive reality and to respond to it. In his careful and elaborate analysis of the history of the term meaning, Sauter reevaluates the differences and the connections between meaning and sense in the context of an age that has jettisoned its own metaphysical moorings.