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Single Idea 21660

[filed under theme 7. Existence / D. Theories of Reality / 3. Reality ]

Full Idea

Reality can be seen as everything that is the case - the totality of all facts that obtain - or reality can be seen as everything there is - the totality of all things that exist.

Gist of Idea

Reality can be seen as the totality of facts, or as the totality of things

Source

Thomas Hofweber (Ontology and the Ambitions of Metaphysics [2016], 10)

Book Ref

Hofweber,Thomas: 'Ontology and the Ambitions of Metaphysics' [OUP 2018], p.248


A Reaction

Things are a lot easier to specify than facts, but on the whole I prefer facts, just in order to affirm that there is more to reality than the mere 'things' that compose it. Our ontology must capture the dynamic and relational character of reality.

Related Ideas

Idea 13133 The world is facts, not things. Facts determine the world, and the world divides into facts [Wittgenstein]

Idea 16965 All we have of general existence is what existential quantifiers express [Quine]