Fact

For the trade organisation, see Federation Against Copyright Theft.

Generally, a fact is defined as something that is true, something that actually exists, or something having objective reality that can be verified according to an established standard of evaluation.

"Hard to belive facts"

• babies are born without knee caps and they dont apear intill 2-6 years of age
• cockcroaches can live up to 9 days when their heads have been cut off xD
• In cleveland it is alegal to use a mouse trap on a mouse without a hunting licence.
• there are 86,400 seconds in a day
• American children spend up to 10 billion pounds on chewing gun each year
• Shakespeare invented the word "assination and bump"
• Women blink twice as much as men
• Dreamt is the only english word that ends in mt
• Winston chirchall was born in a ladies room during a dance
• The electronic chair was invented by a dentist
• On average, people fear spiders more than they do death
• You share a birthday with about another 9 million people in the world
• I am is the shortest complete sentance in the english language
• The longest word in the english dictionary is 1901 letters long and it refers to a discint part of the dna
• It is impossible to sneeze with your eyes open
• Cats urine glows under a black light
• The catfish has 21,000 taste buds
• The only word that has 15 letters and that doesnt repeat a letter is uncopyrightable.
• The first ever novel written on a type write was tom sawyer
• Donald duck comic books were once banned in finland because donald didnt wear pants
• The name of all the contients end with the letter that they start with
• More people are killed by donkeys annually than they are killed in plane crashes
• A crocodile can not stick its tounge out
• Dueling is allegel in paraquay as long as the fighters on blood donor lists
• Rubber bands last longer when refridgerated
• Typewriter is the longest word that can be made on the top row of the keyboard
• You can not lick your elbow
• peanuts are one of the ingredients in dynimite
• i bet you tryed to lick your elbow
• Elephants are the only animals in the world that cant jump
• The name "oz" in the wizard of oz was named after when somone looked in a filing capnet--- A-N and O-Z "hence the name oz"
• A goldfish has a memory span of 3 seconds
• A dragon fly has the life span of 24 hours
• The average left hand does 56% of the typing.
• Left handed people are smarter than right handed, but right handed people have the neater handwriting.
• The microwave was invented when a chocolate bar melted in a mans pocket
• If you use both hands to type, stewardesses is the longest word to type just with the left hand
• Los angeles full name is :"El Pueblo de Nuestra Senora la Reina de los Angeles de Porciuncula". And can be abbreviated to 3.63% of its size, "L.A."

Facts like these are actually true, but yes hard to belive. There are many more facts like these!

Etymology and usage

The word fact has been used in the following ways, historically:

• Originally, the word fact derives from the Latin Factum, and was first used in English with the same meaning: "a thing done or performed", a use that is now obsolete.

• The common usage of, "something that has really occurred or is the case", dates from the middle of the sixteenth century.

• Fact is sometimes used as synonymous with truth or reality, as distinguishable from conclusions or opinions. This use is found for instance in the phrase Matter of fact, and in "... not history, nor fact, but imagination."

• Fact may be argued under authority of a specific pedagogy, such as scientific facts or historical facts.

• 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 ...").

• Alternatively, "fact" may also indicate an allegation or stipulation of something that may or may not be a "true fact", (e.g., "the author's facts are not trustworthy"). This alternate usage, although contested by some, has a long history in standard English.

• 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. This use is reflected in the terms "fact-find" and "fact-finder" (e.g., "set up a fact-finding commission").

Fact in philosophy

In philosophy, the concept fact is considered in epistemology and ontology. Questions of objectivity and truth are closely associated with questions of fact. A "fact" can be defined as something which is the case, that is, the state of affairs reported by a true proposition.

Facts may be understood as that which makes a true sentence true. For example, the statement "Jupiter is the largest planet in the solar system" is made true by the fact that Jupiter is the largest planet in the solar system. 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.

Misunderstanding of the difference between fact and theory sometimes leads to fallacy in rhetoric, in which one person will say that their claim is factual whereas their opponent's claim is just theory. Such statements indicate confusion as to the meanings of both words, suggesting they believe that fact means "truth," and theory means "speculation."

Correspondence and the slingshot argument

Some versions of the correspondence theory of truth hold that what makes a sentence true is that it corresponds to a fact. 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 we reach the counter-intuitive conclusion that there is only one fact - "the truth".

Compound facts

Any non-trivial true statement about reality is necessarily an abstraction composed of a complex of objects and properties or relations. For example, the fact described by the true statement "Paris is the capital city of France" implies that there is such a place as Paris, that there is such a place as France, that there are such things as capital cities, as well as that France has a government, that the government of France has the power to define its capital city, and that the French government has chosen Paris to be the capital, that there is such a thing as a "place" or a "government", etc.. The verifiable accuracy of all of these assertions, if facts themselves, may coincide to create the fact that Paris is the capital of France.

Difficulties arise, however, in attempting to identify the constituent parts of negative, modal, disjunctive, or moral facts.

The fact-value distinction

Main article: fact-value distinction

Moral philosophers since David Hume have debated whether values are objective, and thus factual. In A Treatise of Human Nature Hume pointed out that there is no obvious way for a series of statements about what ought to be the case to be derived from a series of statements of what is the case. Those who insist that there is a logical gulf between facts and values, such that it is fallacious to attempt to derive values from facts, include G. E. Moore, who called attempting to do so the Naturalistic fallacy.

The factual-counterfactual distinction

Main article: counterfactual conditional

Factuality — what has occurred — can also be contrasted with counterfactuality — what might have occurred, but did not. A counterfactual conditional or subjunctive conditional is a conditional (or "if-then") statement indicating what would be the case if events had been other than they actually are. For example, "If Alexander had lived, his empire would have been greater than Rome". This is to be contrasted with an indicative conditional, which indicates what is (in fact) the case if its antecedent is (in fact) true — for example, "if you drink this, it will make you well".

Such sentences are important to Modal logic, especially since the development of Possible world semantics.

Fact in science

Further information: scientific method and philosophy of science

Just as in philosophy, the scientific concept of fact is central to fundamental questions regarding the nature, methods, scope and validity of scientific reasoning.

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.

Various scholars have offered significant refinements to this basic formulation, some of which are detailed below. Also, rigorous scientific use of the term "fact" is careful to distinguish: 1) states of affairs in the external world; from 2) assertions of fact that may be considered relevant in scientific analysis. The term is used in both senses in the philosophy of science.

Scholarly inquiry regarding scientific fact

Scholars and clinical researchers in both the social and natural sciences have forwarded numerous questions and theories in clarifying the fundamental nature of scientific fact. Some pertinent issues raised by this inquiry include:

• the process by which "established fact" becomes recognized and accepted as such;
• whether and to what extent "fact" and "theoretic explanation" can be considered truly independent and separable from one another;
• to what extent are "facts" influenced by the mere act of observation; and
• to what extent are factual conclusions influenced by history and consensus, rather than a strictly systematic methodology.

Consistent with the theory of confirmation holism, some scholars assert "fact" to be necessarily "theory-laden" to some degree. Thomas Kuhn and others pointed out that knowing what facts to measure, and how to measure them, requires the use of some other theory (e.g., age of fossils is based on radiocarbon dating which is justified by reasoning that radioactive decay follows a Poisson process rather than a Bernoulli process). Similarly, Percy Williams Bridgman is credited with the methodological position known as operationalism, which asserts that all observations are not only influenced, but necessarily defined by the means and assumptions used to measure them.

Fact and the scientific method

Apart from the fundamental inquiry in to 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. Scientific facts are generally believed to be independent of the observer: no matter who performs a scientific experiment, all observers will agree on the outcome. 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.

There is a distinction to be made between fact and theory. It is a fact that most things stick to the earth, without regard to why they do. The theory of gravitation explains why this is so. It is a(n observational) fact that the sun and the stars circle the earth once daily. There are two theories to account for this: that the earth is stationary at the centre of the universe (geocentric model or that the earth spins on its axis daily as part of a heliocentric model. Numerous further observations favour the latter model which is now acknowledged as correct: the heliocentric model can be said to have achieved factual status whereas the geocentric model has correspondingly lost its factual authority.

Fact in History

Further information: Historiography

A common rhetorical cliche states, "History is written by the winners." This phrase suggests but does not examine the use of facts in the writing of history.

E. H. Carr in his 1961 volume, What is History?, argues that the inherent biases from the gathering of facts makes the objective truth of any historical perspective idealistic and impossible. Facts are, "like fish in the Ocean," that we may only happen to catch a few, only an indication of what is below the surface. Even a dragnet cannot tell us for certain what it would be like to live below the Ocean's surface. Even if we do not discard any facts (or fish) presented, we will always miss the majority; the site of our fishing, the methods undertaken, the weather and even luck play a vital role in what we will catch. Additionally, the composition of history is inevitably made up by the compilation of many different bias of fact finding - all compounded over time. He concludes that for a historian to attempt a more objective method, one must accept that history can only aspire to a conversation of the present with the past - and, that one's methods of fact gathering should be openly examined. As with science, historical truth and facts will therefore change over time and reflect only the present consensus (if that).

In regard to the approach with dealing with facts such as Carr's, some have claimed relativism and they lament the loss of a transcendent or fixed moral framework. However, his views together with the popular rise of historiographical narratives and meta-narratives may comprise a consensual view.

Fact in law

Further information: Evidence (law) and Trier of fact

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. 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;

• the determinations of the finder of fact after evaluating admissible evidence produced in a trial or hearing;

• a potential ground of reversible error forwarded on appeal in an appellate court; and

• any of various matters subject to investigation by official authority to establish whether a crime has been perpetrated, and to establish culpability.

Legal pleadings

A party to a civil suit generally must clearly state all relevant allegations of fact upon which a claim is based. The requisite level of precision and particularity of these allegations varies depending on the rules of civil procedure as well as the jurisdiction. Parties who face uncertainties regarding the facts and circumstances attendant to their side in a dispute may sometimes invoke alternative pleading. In this situation, a party may plead separate facts that (when considered together) may be contradictory or mutually exclusive. This (seemingly) logically-inconsistent presentation of facts may be necessary as a safeguard against contingencies (such as res judicata) that would otherwise preclude presenting a claim or defense that depends on a particular interpretation of the underlying facts.

See also

• Belief
• Brute fact
• Consensus reality
• Counterfactual history
• De facto
• Reality
• State of affairs
• Truth

External links

• Metaphysics for dummies
• Random facts and interesting facts
• Amazing facts
• Fact Lexicon