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Single Idea 6111
[filed under theme 7. Existence / D. Theories of Reality / 8. Facts / a. Facts
]
Full Idea
Since any proposition can be put into a form with a subject and a predicate, united by a copula, it is natural to infer that every fact consists in the possession of a quality by a substance, which seems to me a mistake.
Clarification
'Is' is an example of a copula
Gist of Idea
As propositions can be put in subject-predicate form, we wrongly infer that facts have substance-quality form
Source
Bertrand Russell (Logical Atomism [1924], p.152)
Book Ref
Russell,Bertrand: 'Russell's Logical Atomism', ed/tr. Pears,David [Fontana 1972], p.152
A Reaction
This disagrees with McGinn on facts (Idea 6075). I approve of this warning from Russell, which is a recognition that we can't just infer our metaphysics from our language. I think of this as the 'Frege Fallacy', which ensnared Quine and others.
Related Idea
Idea 6075
Facts are object-plus-extension, or property-plus-set-of-properties, or object-plus-property [McGinn]
The
21 ideas
with the same theme
[general ideas about facts]:
14778
|
Facts are hard unmoved things, unaffected by what people may think of them
[Peirce]
|
6111
|
As propositions can be put in subject-predicate form, we wrongly infer that facts have substance-quality form
[Russell]
|
6434
|
Facts are everything, except simples; they are either relations or qualities
[Russell]
|
21709
|
You can't name all the facts, so they are not real, but are what propositions assert
[Russell]
|
23473
|
Do his existent facts constitute the world, or determine the world?
[Morris,M on Wittgenstein]
|
7610
|
A fact is simply what it is rational to accept
[Putnam]
|
18488
|
We normally explain natural events by citing further facts
[McFetridge]
|
8386
|
Events are picked out by descriptions, and facts by whole sentences
[Crane]
|
17287
|
Facts, such as redness and roundness of a ball, can be 'fused' into one fact
[Fine,K]
|
8314
|
Are facts wholly abstract, or can they contain some concrete constituents?
[Lowe]
|
8316
|
Facts cannot be wholly abstract if they enter into causal relations
[Lowe]
|
8318
|
The problem with the structured complex view of facts is what binds the constituents
[Lowe]
|
8323
|
It is whimsical to try to count facts - how many facts did I learn before breakfast?
[Lowe]
|
15137
|
If 'fact' is a noun, can we name the fact that dogs bark 'Mary'?
[Williamson]
|
14095
|
Facts are structures of worldly items, rather like sentences, individuated by their ingredients
[Rosen]
|
4698
|
What counts as a fact partly depends on the availability of human concepts to describe them
[O'Grady]
|
5735
|
Maybe names and predicates can capture any fact
[Melia]
|
5736
|
No sort of plain language or levels of logic can express modal facts properly
[Melia]
|
21661
|
There are probably ineffable facts, systematically hidden from us
[Hofweber]
|
18916
|
Facts are not in the world - they are properties of the world
[Engelbretsen]
|
17267
|
The identity of two facts may depend on how 'fine-grained' we think facts are
[Correia/Schnieder]
|