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Full Idea
If we try to provide a serious semantics for reference to facts, we discover that they melt into one; there is no telling them apart. The relevant argument (the 'Slingshot') was credited to Frege by Alonso Church.
Gist of Idea
If we try to identify facts precisely, they all melt into one (as the Slingshot Argument proves)
Source
Donald Davidson (Truth Rehabilitated [1997], p.5)
Book Ref
Davidson,Donald: 'Truth, Language and History' [OUP 2005], p.5
A Reaction
This sounds like good grounds for not attempting to be too precise. 'There are bluebells in my local wood' identifies a fact by words, but even an animal can distinguish this fact. Only a logician dreams of making its content precise.
| 4525 | There are no facts in themselves, only interpretations [Nietzsche] |
| 4543 | There are no 'facts-in-themselves', since a sense must be projected into them to make them 'facts' [Nietzsche] |
| 23285 | If we try to identify facts precisely, they all melt into one (as the Slingshot Argument proves) [Davidson] |
| 8313 | Facts are needed for truth-making and causation, but they seem to lack identity criteria [Lowe] |