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Concept

Fact

Fact
The original uploader was Magnus Manske at English Wikipedia. Later versions were uploaded by Optimager at en.wikipedia. · Public domain · source

Overview

A fact is a true datum about one or more aspects of a circumstance, or an occurrence in the real world. Standard reference works are often used to check facts. Scientific facts are verified by careful, repeatable observation or measurement by experiments or other means. After accounts of knowledge of facts such as that in 2002 by epistemologist Angelika Kratzer being applied to Gettier problems (first discovered in the mid-20th century), according to Paul Boghossian, the Enlightenment-era consensus justified true belief definition of knowledge in which knowledge encompasses facts is the "standard, widely accepted" one, though with Bernecker and Dretske (2000) arguing that "no epistemologist since Gettier has seriously and successfully defended the traditional view." This is despite wide, though not universal, agreement among analytic philosophers that the first two criteria of the definition are correct, i.e., that knowledge implies an agent accepting a true proposition (such as a fact).

For example, "This sentence contains words" accurately describes a linguistic fact, and "the Sun is a star" describes an astronomical fact. Further, "Abraham Lincoln was the 16th president of the United States" and "Abraham Lincoln was assassinated" are both historical facts.

Overview adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0; see the article history for authors).

Possible passages

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  1. Suppose, for instance, that the fact, which the testimony endeavours to establish, partakes of the extraordinary and the marvellous; in that case, the evidence, resulting from the testimony, admits of a diminution, greater or less, in proportion as the fact is more or less unusual. The reason why we place any credit in witnesses and historians, is not derived from any _connexion_, which we perceive _a priori_…

    David Hume, An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding

    Names Fact several times; states what Fact is.

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  2. The facts which appear simple, even if they are not so, will therefore be more easily revived by chance. This it is which justifies the method instinctively adopted by the scientist, and what justifies it still better, perhaps, is that oft-recurring facts appear to us simple, precisely because we are used to them.

    Henri Poincaré, The Foundations of Science

    The chapter “THE CHOICE OF FACTS” is titled for Fact; names Fact several times.

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  3. They are likewise intrinsically conformable to this content, and already contain its whole characteristic. b. The Fact is also (α) something pre-supposed or ante-stated, _i.e._ it is at first, and as supposed, only inner and possible, and also, being prior, an independent content by itself, (ß) By using up the conditions, it receives its external existence, the realisation of the articles of its content, which…

    Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, The Logic of Hegel

    Names Fact several times; states what Fact is.

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Philosophers who discussed Fact

Related ideas

Opposing perspectives

Place in the tradition

Part of Agnosticism.

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