Fact
A fact is a
For example, "This sentence contains words." accurately describes a
Facts are different from
Etymology and usage
The word fact derives from the Latin factum. It was first used in English with the same meaning: "a thing done or performed" – a meaning now obsolete.[3] The common usage of "something that has really occurred or is the case" dates from the mid-16th century.[3]
Barbara J. Shapiro wrote in her book A Culture of Fact how the concept of a fact evolved, starting within the English legal tradition of the 16th century.[4]
In 1870, Charles Sanders Peirce described in his book "The Fixation of Belief" four methods which people use to decide what they should believe: tenacity, method of authority, a priori and scientific method.[5]
The term fact also indicates a matter under discussion deemed to be true or correct, such as to emphasize a point or prove a disputed issue; (e.g., "... the fact of the matter is ...").[6][7]
Alternatively, fact may also indicate an allegation or stipulation of something that may or may not be a true fact,[8] (e.g., "the author's facts are not trustworthy"). This alternate usage, although contested by some, has a long history in standard English according to the American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language.[9] The Oxford English Dictionary dates this use to 1729.[citation needed]
Fact may also indicate findings derived through a process of evaluation, including review of testimony, direct observation, or otherwise; as distinguishable from matters of inference or speculation.[10] This use is reflected in the terms "fact-find" and "fact-finder" (e.g., "set up a fact-finding commission").[11]
Facts may be checked by reason, experiment, personal experience, or may be argued from authority. Roger Bacon wrote "If in other sciences we should arrive at certainty without doubt and truth without error, it behooves us to place the foundations of knowledge in mathematics."[12]
In philosophy
In
Facts may be understood as information, which makes a true sentence true: "A fact is, traditionally, the worldly correlate of a true proposition, a state of affairs whose obtaining makes that proposition true."[15] Facts may also be understood as those things to which a true sentence refers. The statement "Jupiter is the largest planet in the solar system" is about the fact that Jupiter is the largest planet in the solar system.[16]
Correspondence and the slingshot argument
Pascal Engel's version of the correspondence theory of truth explains that what makes a sentence true is that it corresponds to a fact.[17] This theory presupposes the existence of an objective world.
The Slingshot argument claims to show that all true statements stand for the same thing, the truth value true. If this argument holds, and facts are taken to be what true statements stand for, then one arrives at the counter-intuitive conclusion that there is only one fact: the truth.[18]
Compound facts
Any non-trivial true statement about
Difficulties arise, however, in attempting to identify the constituent parts of negative, modal, disjunctive, or moral facts.[19]
Fact–value distinction
Moral philosophers since
Factual–counterfactual distinction
In mathematics
In mathematics, a fact is a statement (called a theorem) that can be proven by logical argument from certain axioms and definitions.[citation needed]
In science
The definition of a scientific fact is different from the definition of fact, as it implies
In the most basic sense, a scientific fact is an objective and verifiable observation, in contrast with a hypothesis or theory, which is intended to explain or interpret facts.[20]
Various
Scholars and clinical researchers in both the social and natural sciences have written about numerous questions and theories that arise in the attempt to clarify the fundamental nature of scientific fact.[20] Pertinent issues raised by this inquiry include:
- the process by which "established fact" becomes recognized and accepted as such;[21]: 182 fn. 1
- whether and to what extent "fact" and "theoretic explanation" can be considered truly independent and separable from one another;[21]: 185 [20]: 138
- to what extent "facts" are influenced by the mere act of observation;[20]: 138 and
- to what extent factual conclusions are influenced by history and consensus, rather than a strictly systematic methodology.[20]: 7
Consistent with the idea of
The scientific method
Apart from the fundamental inquiry into the nature of scientific fact, there remain the practical and social considerations of how fact is investigated, established, and substantiated through the proper application of the scientific method.[21]: 181 ff Scientific facts are generally believed independent of the observer: no matter who performs a scientific experiment, all observers agree on the outcome.[22] In addition to these considerations, there are the social and institutional measures, such as peer review and accreditation, that are intended to promote factual accuracy among other interests in scientific study.[21]
In history
A common rhetorical cliché states, "
In law
This section of the article emphasizes common law jurisprudence as primarily represented in Anglo-American–based legal tradition. Nevertheless, the principles described herein have analogous treatment in other legal systems such as civil law systems as well.
In most common law jurisdictions, the general concept and analysis of fact reflects fundamental principles of jurisprudence, and is supported by several well-established standards.[23][24] Matters of fact have various formal definitions under common law jurisdictions.
These include:
- an element required in legal pleadings to demonstrate a cause of action;[25][26]
- the determinations of the finder of fact after evaluating admissible evidence produced in a trial or hearing;[27]
- a potential ground of reversible error forwarded on appeal in an appellate court;[28] and
- any of various matters subject to investigation by official authority to establish whether a crime has been perpetrated, and to establish culpability.[29]
Legal pleadings
A party (e.g.,
See also
- Brute fact
- Common misconceptions
- Consensus reality
- Counterfactual history
- De facto
- Factoid
- Fiction
- Lie
References
- ^ "Definition of fact | Dictionary.com". www.dictionary.com. Retrieved 17 May 2023.
- ^ Mulligan, Kevin; Correia, Fabrice (2021), "Facts", in Zalta, Edward N. (ed.), The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Winter 2021 ed.), Metaphysics Research Lab, Stanford University, retrieved 18 November 2022,
Facts, philosophers like to say, are opposed to theories and to values (cf. Rundle 1993) and are to be distinguished from things, in particular from complex objects, complexes and wholes, and from relations.
- ^ a b "Fact" (1a). Oxford English Dictionary_2d_Ed_1989 Joye Exp. Dan. xi. Z vij b, Let emprours and kinges know this godly kynges fact. 1545(but note the conventional uses: after the fact and before the fact)
- OCLC 41606276.
- ISBN 1973922991, 38 pp
- ^ "Fact" (6c). Oxford English Dictionary_2d_Ed_1989
- ^ (See also "Matter" (2,6). Compact_Oxford English Dictionary)
- ^ "Fact" (5). Oxford English Dictionary_2d_Ed_1989
- ^ American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language_4th_Ed.
- ^ "Fact" (6a). Oxford English Dictionary_2d_Ed_1989
- ^ "Fact" (8). Oxford English Dictionary_2d_Ed_1989
- ^ Roger Bacon, translated by Robert Burke Opus Majus, Book I, Chapter 2.
- ^ "A fact, it might be said, is a state of affairs that is the case or obtains." – Stanford Encyclopaedia of Philosophy. States of Affairs
- ^ Wittgenstein, Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus, Proposition 2: What is the case—a fact—is the existence of states of affairs.
- ^ a b Oxford Companion to Philosophy
- ISBN 0-415-32495-5.
- ISBN 0-7735-2462-2.
- ISBN 0-19-824617-X.
- ISBN 0-19-866132-0
- ^ ISBN 0-415-12282-1.
- ^ ISBN 1-56000-851-2.
- ^ Cassell, Eric J. The Nature of Suffering and the Goals of Medicine Oxford University Press. Retrieved 16 May 2007.
- ^ Estrich, Willis Albert (1952). American Jurisprudence: A Comprehensive Text Statement of American Case Law. Lawyers Co-operative Publishing Company.
- ISBN 1-57018-335-X.
- ISBN 9780882773797. Original from the University of Michigan Digitized 2006.
- ^ The Yale Law Journal: Volume 7. Yale Law Journal Co. 1898.
- ^ Per Lord Shaw of Dunfermline, Clarke v. Edinburgh and District Tramways Co, 1919 S.C.(H.L.) 35, at p 36.
- ^ Merrill, John Houston (1895). The American and English Encyclopedia of Law. E. Thompson. Original from Harvard University Digitized 2007.
- ISBN 0-534-61524-4.
- ^ Roy W. McDonald, "Alternative Pleading in the United States". Columbia Law Review, Vol. 52, No. 4 (Apr. 1952), pp. 443–478
- ^ McDonald 1952
External links
- "Facts" entry in the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy