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Single Idea 10365

[filed under theme 3. Truth / B. Truthmakers / 5. What Makes Truths / a. What makes truths ]

Full Idea

Mellor offers a distinction between 'facts' and 'facta' (the latter being the truth-makers for facts).

Gist of Idea

We might use 'facta' to refer to the truth-makers for facts

Source

report of D.H. Mellor (The Facts of Causation [1995]) by Jonathan Schaffer - The Metaphysics of Causation 1.1

Book Ref

'Stanford Online Encyclopaedia of Philosophy', ed/tr. Stanford University [plato.stanford.edu], p.5


A Reaction

The idea is that 'facta' can do the work in causation, because 'facts' are not part of the world. This seems a very helpful terminology, which should be encouraged, since 'fact' is plainly ambiguous in current usage.


The 8 ideas from D.H. Mellor

We might use 'facta' to refer to the truth-makers for facts [Mellor, by Schaffer,J]
Causal statements relate facts (which are whatever true propositions express) [Mellor, by Psillos]
Probabilistic causation says C is a cause of E if it increases the chances of E occurring [Mellor, by Tooley]
There is obviously a possible predicate for every property [Mellor]
We need universals for causation and laws of nature; the latter give them their identity [Mellor]
If properties were just the meanings of predicates, they couldn't give predicates their meaning [Mellor]
A property is merely a constituent of laws of nature; temperature is just part of thermodynamics [Mellor]
Singular causation requires causes to raise the physical probability of their effects [Mellor]