The word 'fact' is often used throughout the English speaking world. Some philosophers believe that nouns like 'fact' have an exact meaning. I'm not sure what could be the exact meaning of fact. :confused: — Wheatley
The public merely observes. Swallowing everything that is served swallow-ready, without chewing, unconsciously digesting only. Who serves? — Thunderballs
something that can be proven true — Athena
You did not address my objection that if truth and fact mean exactly the same thing, why have two words instead of one?
Rather, you agree with my view; get over it. :-) — Olivier5
A fact is a fact because our theories make them a fact. — Thunderballs
I think you're right. It's the public who decide what a "facts" is, not armchair philosophers. — Wheatley
Historical facts are accurate observations done and recorded in the past, that's all. There usually is a way to observe the record. — Olivier5
A question - is that the area of a circle is given by π r² a fact?
Who says no?
How is this confirmed by observation? — Banno
Math is indeed unique in this respect. — Outlander
Is that the Bishop moves only diagonally a fact? — Banno
But Hume.
The "provable true or false" definition seems to be widely used in "critical thinking" curricula, and it's what Pew used in a recent survey -- more as a definition of "factual" really -- but to a lot of philosophers the word "prove" there is going to mean the word "fact" might as well not exist. — Srap Tasmaner
I want empirical proof. — Athena
No can do. Evidence is all you're ever going to get.
Anyway, that's the party line. I don't have a solid alternative to offer. — Srap Tasmaner
From that, a subsidiary question: Is that the Bishop moves only diagonally a fact?
This by way of digging further into facts as issues of what we might as a start call convention. We can't have personal facts - is that because they are conventional? — Banno
So if a dog is a dog, that is not a fact? — Athena
It's true. I wouldn't call it a fact, but you can if you like. It's provable. It's also uninformative.
And sometimes dogs turn out to be coyotes. — Srap Tasmaner
Of course it is people (not the public) who decides what is fact and what is not. But that means they decide what they take to be fact and what they do not. Are you denying that they might be wrong and what they take to be fact might not be? — Janus
All canines share characteristics in common and belong to one family called canines. They are distinctly different from cats or felidae. If that is not a fact please explain. — Athena
Our brains are relatively useless without language and language without classifications would make scientific thinking impossible. In different regions of the earth, people will have different names for cats and dogs, water and air, etc. so the exact name may not matter, but the ability to classify what is being named does matter. — Athena
That something is what people say is a fact, but what they say is not made a fact by their saying it. — Srap Tasmaner
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