Facts and States of Affairs
Edited by Mark Jago (Nottingham University)
About this topic
Summary | Many metaphysicians have argued that there exist facts, or states of affairs, such as the fact that Bertie is a beagle. Such facts are not linguistic entities, like sentences or propositions, but rather substantial parts of concrete reality. On some views, the fact that Bertie is a beagle involves Bertie himself and the property of being a beagle. Facts have played a prominent role in metaphysical theories, including in Russell's and Wittgenstein's logical atomism. According to many metaphysicians, facts play a crucial role in grounding truths. It is the existence of the fact that Bertie is adorable that makes the corresponding sentence or proposition true. Neither Bertie on his own nor Bertie plus property is a sufficient truthmaker, since Bertie might not have been adorable. |
Key works | Wittgenstein et al 2013 and Russell 1940 put facts front-and-center in their logical atomist metaphysics, but disagreed about their nature. Skyrms 1981 develops Wittgenstein’s approach to facts. Armstrong 1997 is a key recent work on facts (which Armstrong calls ‘states of affairs’) and their role in metaphysics. Neale 2001 is an extended argument against the existence of facts, based on the slingshot argument; Restall 2004 is a response to Neale’s argument. Zalta 1993 gives an account of facts based on his theory of abstract objects. |
Introductions | Textor forthcoming is an encyclopaedia-length article on states of affairs. Chapter 8 of Armstrong 1997 is more partisan but clearly conveys the metaphysical importance of states of affairs. |
Show all references
Related categories
Siblings:
- Applied Ontology (144 | 87)
- Events (304)
- Existence (420)
- Higher-Order Metaphysics (82)
- Metaontology (2,023 | 2)
- Natural Kinds (567)
- Propositions (1,364 | 52)
- Objects (7,184 | 4)
- Properties (3,555 | 167)
- Ontological Categories (154)
- Substance (704)
- Truthmakers (674)
- Ontology of Specific Domains (12 | 7)
- Ontology, Misc (435)
Jobs in this area
Program Director and Lecturer, Embedded EthiCS
Philosopher in Residence
Assistant Professor
Jobs from PhilJobs
291 found
Order:
1 filter applied
|
Off-campus access
Using PhilPapers from home?
Create an account to enable off-campus access through your institution's proxy server. Monitor this page
Be alerted of all new items appearing on this page. Choose how you want to monitor it:
Editorial team
General Editors:
David Bourget (Western Ontario) David Chalmers (ANU, NYU) Area Editors: David Bourget Gwen Bradford Berit Brogaard Margaret Cameron David Chalmers James Chase Rafael De Clercq Ezio Di Nucci Esa Diaz-Leon Barry Hallen Hans Halvorson Jonathan Ichikawa Michelle Kosch Øystein Linnebo JeeLoo Liu Paul Livingston Brandon Look Manolo Martínez Matthew McGrath Michiru Nagatsu Susana Nuccetelli Giuseppe Primiero Jack Alan Reynolds Darrell P. Rowbottom Aleksandra Samonek Constantine Sandis Howard Sankey Jonathan Schaffer Thomas Senor Robin Smith Daniel Star Jussi Suikkanen Aness Kim Webster Other editors Contact us Learn more about PhilPapers |