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Single Idea 7610

[filed under theme 7. Existence / D. Theories of Reality / 8. Facts / a. Facts ]

Full Idea

I propose that the only criterion for what is a fact is what it is rational to accept.

Gist of Idea

A fact is simply what it is rational to accept

Source

Hilary Putnam (Reason, Truth and History [1981], Pref)

Book Ref

Putnam,Hilary: 'Reason, Truth and History' [CUP 1998], p.-3

A Reaction

An epistemological-ontological confusion here. The concept of a fact is of something which is the case quite independently of our criteria for believing it. There are facts which are unknowable for humans. It is, of course, rational to accept facts.

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]
5736 No sort of plain language or levels of logic can express modal facts properly [Melia]
5735 Maybe names and predicates can capture any fact [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]