Is data modeling Design or Description?

Ken Evans asks (LinkedIn, Data Modeling, 2020/3/25)

In the book "Data Modeling: Theory and Practice" Graeme Simsion describes the result of his extensive research into the "Design or Description?" question. Graeme's research showed that whilst many people believe that a data modeler's job is to "describe" a reality that is out there, the truth is that data modelers are designers rather than describers.

Everest Responds:

I do not intend to contradict what Simsion said.  If modeling was purely a descriptive activity it would be easy, although we would have differing points of view, different interpretations.  It is the differences in these descriptions that means it is best considered a "design" activity -- precisely because there are many choices to be made in building the model.  The modeler CHOOSES how to represent that domain in building the model.  So the question remains, how do we know when we have a correct model?  Interesting that Simsion maintains that there is no one correct model, hence a design activity.  I agree with that, which is why I posed the question about the goal of data modeling  is to find THE correct model.

… Or perhaps one would be open to finding A correct model! However, that still doesn't answer the question: How do we know it is A correct model?