On Facts

We live in a post-facts world, so I hear. Certainly facts are widely ignored. Or is that statement actually true? Science has processes for determining facts about nature. Philosophy examines ways to identify facts and verify them. Anti-facts appear, sometimes called lies: statements presented in opposition to objective reality. Subjective reality becomes fact. We see a lot of subjective reality in social and political life.

            Note that subjective reality is subject to proof. The proof is: I say it is so. The proof then becomes the person saying it. The person is thus a fact. Definitions of fact include: something that really happened, a real situation, something we know is actually going on. A lot of facts in politics are anti-facts in science and philosophy.

            We could return to the Latin, where ‘fact’ means ‘deed’. A fact has already been performed. We live in a post-fact world, where the fact (science: climate change) meets the anti-fact (politics: no climate change). We do not live in a post-truth world. For Christians, Jesus Christ is the Truth, where word (already a deed) meets fact: homo factus est. It is therefore deeds of compassion and mercy we must perform, following truth in fact.