 The interpretation of history must deal with all manifestations of life, not merely expressions that are intended to communicate a state of mind. In the section entitled “The Understanding of Other Persons and Their Manifestations of Life”, Dilthey distinguishes three classes of life-manifestations. The first class consists of concepts, judgments and larger thought-formations. They are intended to communicate states of affairs, not states of mind. Thus the proposition “two plus two equals four” means the same in all contexts and says nothing about the person uttering it. Actions form a second class of manifestations of life. Actions as such are not meant to communicate anything, but they often do reveal something about the intentions of the actor. Thus if someone picks up a hammer nearby some nails and wooden boards, it is legitimate to assume that he or she wants to assemble the boards into some artifact. If this occurs in a large workshop, it is also plausible to think the person is a carpenter. This might also tell us something about the person’s livelihood, but not much more. There is a third class of life-manifestations that Dilthey calls “expressions of lived experience” and which disclose more about the individual uttering them. Expressions of lived experience can range from emotional exclamations and gestures to personal self-descriptions and reflections to works of art. Often these expressions are more revealing than was intended: