Full Idea
Philosophers who have advocated facts as being causal relata have confused them with states, such as a stone's being heavy; they are guilty of confusing states of affairs with states of objects.
Gist of Idea
To cite facts as the elements in causation is to confuse states of affairs with states of objects
Source
E.J. Lowe (The Possibility of Metaphysics [1998], 11.3)
Book Reference
Lowe,E.J.: 'The Possibility of Metaphysics' [OUP 2001], p.236
A Reaction
A state of an object can be individuated rather more precisely than a fact or state of affairs. There are, of course, vast numbers of states of objects, but only a few states of affairs, involved in (say) the fall of the Berlin Wall.