Single Idea 14095

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

Full Idea

Facts are structured entities built up from worldly items rather as sentences are built up from words. They might be identified with Russellian propositions. They are individuated by their constituents and composition, and are fine-grained.

Gist of Idea

Facts are structures of worldly items, rather like sentences, individuated by their ingredients

Source

Gideon Rosen (Metaphysical Dependence [2010], 04)

Book Reference

'Modality', ed/tr. Hale,B/Hoffman,A [OUP 2010], p.114


A Reaction

I'm a little cautious about the emphasis on being sentence-like. We have Russell's continual warnings against imposing subject-predicate structure on things. I think we should happily talk about 'facts' in metaphysics.

Related Idea

Idea 10842 The fact which is stated by a true sentence is not something in the world [Strawson,P]