Mat Wilder

Is there a difference between facticity and truth? Obviously all factual statements are true, but are there any true statements that are not factual? Perhaps my imagination is failing me, and I'm missing something obvious?

kennethamy

"This is a fact" is, in one sense of "fact", synonymous with, "this is true". If the policeman says, "Give me only the facts, please, not how you feel" he is only saying, "Tell me only the truth".

In a different sense of "fact" it is facts that make beliefs or statement true. The statement that the cat is on the mat is true because it corresponds to the fact that there is a cat, and there is a mat, and the cat has the relation to the mat of being on it. So, if a statement is true, it is because there is a fact to which that statement corresponds, and truth is a relation between a statement (or a belief) and a fact. It there is no fact to which the statement corresponds, then that statement is false.

The term, "a factual statement" is another term meaning, "a true statement". To ask, "are his statements factual?" is to ask, "are his statements true?"

fac·tic·i·ty (fāk-t�*s'�*-tē) Pronunciation Key
n. The quality or condition of being a fact: historical facticity.

The American Heritage Dictionary

Chris Porter

Fact is what is, truth is a description of the relationship of a statement to fact.

kennethamy

In one sense of "fact", as I pointed out. But in another sense of "fact" the word "fact" is synonymous with "true". The word, "fact", is ambiguous.

Of course, in one sense, truth is not a description of anything at all. It is the relationship between a statement (or a belief) and something in the world we call a "fact" or a "state of affairs". The word "truth" would be a term for that relationship, but, of course, not the relationship itself. Just as the word "cat" is a term for the animal, but is not, itself, the animal.

wordy

Words like fact and truth is very similar to words like real and reality. Ambiguous.

But fact is slightly less so. Most people seem to agree that facts are established by evidence. Double blind experiments and so on.

~M~

the police actually means to say 'tell me what you think is true.'

kennethamy

Of course facts are established by evidence. But that does not say what is established by evidence. To say that facts are established by evidence does nothing toward saying what a fact is.

kennethamy

That's right, "tell me what you think the facts are"= "tell me what you think is true". That's what I said: "fact" and "true" in that context mean the same thing.

kennethamy

[QUOTE=kennethamy;4856602]Of course facts are established by evidence. But that does not explain what facts are. To say that facts are established by evidence does nothing toward saying what a fact is. Both the facts and truth are established by evidence since "the facts" and "truth" come to the same thing. "It is a fact that Joe is Sam's brother" means the same as, 'It is true that Joe is Sam's brother". And, the evidence that would establish the former would establish the latter.

Of course, in a different sense of the word "fact" a fact is what makes a particular statement true. The statement that Joe is Sam's brother is true because there is a fact, namely, that Joe is Sams's brother.

So, in one sense, "fact" just means a truth". But in a different sense, a fact explains why a particular statement is true: namely, because it corresponds to a fact.

Gandhi the Hun

These responses seem hilarious because in philosophy, one can speak of anything simple and turn it in a complicated mess! or better yet, philosophizing reveals how complex the world we perceive as simple really is...

"Fact" and "truth" are words made up by humans to communicate, let's not ignore this. They are not completely objective things that exist in reality. Without a consciousness to percieve reality and discern whether something is true or fact, the concept would not exist...We created the concept and also the words "truth and "fact" labeling it. Could it not be that the words mean the same thing? If you think that if someone honestly believes something to be true, it makes it true for them, then their truth could contradict the facts..so I think truth is a more subjective thing.