What makes a belief true or false I call a fact. The particular fact that makes a given belief true or false I call its objective, and the relation of the belief to its objective I call the reference or the objective reference of the belief. Thus, if I believe that Columbus crossed the Atlantic in 1492, the objective of my belief is Columbus's actual voyage, and the reference of my belief is the relation between my belief and the voyage--that relation, namely, in virtue of which the voyage makes my belief true (or, in another case, false). Reference of beliefs differs from meaning of words in various ways, but especially in the fact that it is of two kinds, true reference and false reference. The truth or falsehood of a belief does not depend upon anything intrinsic to the belief, but upon the nature of its relation to its objective. The intrinsic nature of belief can be treated without reference to what makes it true or false.

Bertrand Russell

Bertrand Russell