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.

On Internet Dating

When looking for a partner, or even a date, people can search for someone appealing on internet sites: sometimes rewarding; sometimes discouraging. Like the young woman looking for men who are tall, good-looking, good income, good personality. What about honest, intelligent, kind, sincere?

            Looking for a dog is similar. Dog rescue sites, mainly discouraging, I find. There’s an art to responding to rejection, when the only cause is someone else got there first. Not an overwhelming number of homeless dogs around. Lots of actively bored cattle dogs, actively determined huskies, actively mischievous staffies with various crosses of these, but what if something sweet and fluffy would be more suitable? Gone already!

            Or am I like the buyer at the slave market in classical antiquity, ‘I’ve seen enough Caucasians; I’d rather have a Gaul.’    Stereotypes were big in the ancient world (‘all Cretans are liars’) and I’ve just stereotyped a whole set of dogs. Maybe the most charming and desirable dogs rarely find themselves in dog rescue shelters.

            Is the answer to go somewhere and look someone in the eye? Eye to eye can’t be stereotyped. Surely the virtues of patience and resilience are developed on internet searches.