The status of facts
Perhaps a strange question initially, but what are facts and how do they exist?
Say the cloud above me is a white cumulonimbus. When I say "there exists a white cumulonimbus cloud several thousand meters above me" I seem to be making a true claim.
But actually, this statement is very vague. What does exist mean? Do the words "cumulonimbus" and "cloud" and "white" refer to, or "carve" reality, correctly (what if the cloud was actually gray?)? What is the status of the relational distance between me and the cloud (we measure it in meters, but is there an additional "objective length"?)? And "above me" actually specifically means above a ~6' tall person (me). And what about all the extra information left out (like the mass, temperature, density, etc of the cloud, etc)?
So there is a lot of implicit vagueness in this statement. Everyone here "knows" what I mean when I say it, though. Similar statements also portray the same thing:
"There exists a cloud above me."
"There is a cloud up there."
"A cloud exists above darthbarracuda."
etc.
There seems to be an objective fact that is exemplified by this statement or any statements of similar structure. For every truth-apt proposition and its reference, there initially seems to be an additional third entity, a fact (of the matter), that determines whether or not the proposition is actually true. It is what we refer to when we say "It is true that...(proposition)."
But what is this thing, this fact? Is it true that it actually exists (and is that a fact? >:O )? Is it needed for reality to "work"? If it exists, then how does it exist? What responsibilities does it have (for language-users, causation, intelligibility, etc)?
Say the cloud above me is a white cumulonimbus. When I say "there exists a white cumulonimbus cloud several thousand meters above me" I seem to be making a true claim.
But actually, this statement is very vague. What does exist mean? Do the words "cumulonimbus" and "cloud" and "white" refer to, or "carve" reality, correctly (what if the cloud was actually gray?)? What is the status of the relational distance between me and the cloud (we measure it in meters, but is there an additional "objective length"?)? And "above me" actually specifically means above a ~6' tall person (me). And what about all the extra information left out (like the mass, temperature, density, etc of the cloud, etc)?
So there is a lot of implicit vagueness in this statement. Everyone here "knows" what I mean when I say it, though. Similar statements also portray the same thing:
"There exists a cloud above me."
"There is a cloud up there."
"A cloud exists above darthbarracuda."
etc.
There seems to be an objective fact that is exemplified by this statement or any statements of similar structure. For every truth-apt proposition and its reference, there initially seems to be an additional third entity, a fact (of the matter), that determines whether or not the proposition is actually true. It is what we refer to when we say "It is true that...(proposition)."
But what is this thing, this fact? Is it true that it actually exists (and is that a fact? >:O )? Is it needed for reality to "work"? If it exists, then how does it exist? What responsibilities does it have (for language-users, causation, intelligibility, etc)?
Comments (10)
Actually, if there was a cumulonimbus cloud directly above you, it would be dark grey, and not white, because they're very thick, dense, and block out the sun. To someone standing many miles away, the cloud would appear to be white.
Quoting darthbarracuda
What would be the objective fact then, that the cloud is grey, or that the cloud is white? Perhaps the fact is that the cloud appears to be grey to you, and appears to be white to someone else. But what does this mean?
-Nietzsche
The reports and POVs can be correlated, and you, me, and other observers can come to an agreement that there was a cumulonimbus cloud above you.
A "fact" is the truth, arrived at with care.
This meaning (of 'fact') developed from Latin factum, neuter past participle of facere ‘do.’ The original sense was ‘an act or feat,’ later ‘bad deed, a crime,’ surviving in the phrase before (or after) the fact. In the late 1500s it took on its present meaning of something truthful.
Is that a fact?
Was exactly my thought, BC. Any all-encompassing metaphysical position has to be able to account for itself.
Is this just an approximate opinion? An approximate opinion that everything is just an approximate opinion?