Texts
- The Problem of Learning
- Problemistics Courseware
- Corso su Problemistica
- Resources Management
- Manuale/Intellettuale
- Campagna/Città
Problemistics - Problémistique - Problemistica
The Art & Craft of Problem Dealing
Facts
Definition (Susanne K. Langer)
Definition (Deobold B. Van Dalen)
Definition (Willard Van Orman Quine)
Definition (Arnold Berleant)
Definition (Talcott Parsons and Edward A. Shils)
Definition (Robert M. Hayes)Classification (Deobold B. Van Dalen)
Function (Deobold B. Van Dalen)Characteristics (Gunnar Myrdal)
Social fact (Peter Worsley et alii)
Historical fact (Edward H. Carr)Facts and statements (Jennifer Trusted)
Facts and hypothesis (Edward H. Carr)
Facts and hypothesis (Gerald Runkle)
Facts and theory (Abraham Kaplan)
Facts and theory (Jennifer Trusted)Facts and values (Kenneth Boulding)
Facts and values (Gunnar Myrdal)
Facts and values (Edward H. Carr)
Facts and values (Abraham Kaplan)
Value and action (Hans Ozbekhan)Facts and interpretation (Jacques Barzun and Henry F. Graff)
Facts and science (Henri Poincaré)
Facts and idea (Jacques Barzun and Henry F. Graff)
[1957, First Published 1942] Susanne K. Langer, Philosophy in a New Key
“... a fact is an intellectually formulated event, whether the formulation be performed by a process of sheer vision, verbal interpretation, or practical response.”
(Chapter X, p. 269)
[1962] Deobold B. Van Dalen, Understanding Educational Research
“To scientists, a fact is any experience, change, occurrence, or event that is sufficiently stable and supported by enough evidence to be counted on in an investigation.
(Chapter 3, p. 47)
[1960] Willard Van Orman Quine, Word & Object
“In ordinary usage ‘fact’ often occurs where we could without loss say ‘true sentence’ or ... ‘true proposition’.” (Chapter VII, p. 247)
[1973] Arnold Berleant in Ervin Laszlo and James B. Wilbur (editors), Value Theory in Philosophy and Social Science
“I shall take a fact to be a statement about experience, one that has high probability and whose truth is not open to serious question.”
("The Experience & Judgment of Values", p. 31)
[1965, First Edition 1951] Talcott Parsons and Edward A. Shils (editors), Toward a General Theory of Action
“... facts are not ‘realities’ but statements about reality. They may be ‘true’ and yet highly selective in relation to any conception of the ‘total reality’.”
(Part 2, Chapter 3, p. 167, footnote 8)
[1993] Robert M. Hayes, Measurement of Information
“The term ‘fact’ is defined here to mean ‘a statement whose truth is testable’ with reference to the real world.”
(in "Information Processing & Management" - vol. 29, n.1, 1993, p. 1)
[1979, First Edition 1962] Deobold B. Van Dalen, Understanding Educational Research
Accessibility of facts
“Not all facts are equally accessible to the observer. Personal or private facts, such as dreams, fears, preferences, feelings, and revelations, lie hidden deep within the individual.” (p. 47)
Theoretical/empirical continuum
“Some facts are derived directly from the impact of stimuli upon the senses; others are reached by conceptual manipulations.” (p. 49)
(Chapter 3 : Nature of Observation)
[1979, First Edition 1962] Deobold B. Van Dalen, Understanding Educational Research
- Stimulation of theorization by facts. “As Pasteur pointed out, when people
make observations, 'chance favours the prepared mind'. One must have a broad background of knowledge if one is to recognize an unusual fact and utilize this sudden insight to structure an explanation for the nature of the phenomenon.”
- Confirmation of theories by facts. “Facts are essential for the establishment of a scientific theory : they determine whether a theory can be confirmed or should be rejected or reformulated. Facts may not be available immediately for the confirmation or rejection of a theory, but they are necessary for the eventual acceptance or abandonment of it.”
- Clarification of theories by facts. “... additional facts can give greater specificity and breadth to a theory.”
(Chapter 3, pp. 51-52)
[1958] Gunnar Myrdal, Value in Social Theory
“Scientific facts do not exist per se, waiting to be discovered by scientists.
A scientific fact is a construction abstracted from a complex and interwoven reality by means of arbitrary definitions and classifications.”
(Appendix 2, p. 153)
[1974, First Edition 1970] Peter Worsley et alii, Introducing Sociology
“In so far as sociology is concerned ... a fact is simply some element of perception which is related to the sociologist’s conceptual scheme.”
(Chapter 2, p. 73)
[1961] Edward H. Carr, What is History?
“Its [an event] status as a historical fact will turn on a question of interpretation.
This element of interpretation enters into every fact of history." (pp. 12-13)
“... the facts of history never come to us 'pure', since they do not and cannot exist in a pure form : they are always refracted through the mind of the recorder." (p. 22)
[1987] Jennifer Trusted, Inquiry and Understanding
“Facts ... are related to statements and to propositions but they are not themselves statements or propositions, not even true statements or propositions. Empirical facts ‘hover’ between events and objects in the world and what we think and say about those events and objects.”
(Chapter 4, pp. 38-39)
[1961] Edward H. Carr, What is History?
“Nowadays both scientists and historians entertain the more modest hope of advancing progressively from one fragmentary hypothesis to another, isolating their facts through the medium of their interpretations, and testing their interpretations by the facts.” (p. 61)
[1981] Gerald Runkle, Good Thinking, Second Edition
“The hypothesis illuminates the facts, while the facts support the hypothesis. The hypothesis is an effort to understand the facts, while the facts stand as evidence for the hypothesis. The hypothesis is created; the facts are found”.
“A hypothesis goes beyond the ‘factual’ premises. By imposing a pattern on the facts, it makes them meaningful. The truth of the hypothesis, while not proved, is supported by the facts it illuminates.”
(Chapter 9, p. 268)
[1964] Abraham Kaplan, The Conduct of Inquiry
“... the difference between facts and theories lies in the ways in which they function in inquiry rather than in the processes by which we arrive at them, in their use rather than their origin.” (p. 131)
“Theories are as much involved in the determination of fact as facts are in establishing a theory.” (p. 134)
(Chapter IV, § 15 The Process of Observation)
[1987] Jennifer Trusted, Inquiry and Understanding
“... facts are regarded as facts only because the theory or theories supporting them are accepted.” (p. 28)
“... should an established theory come to be rejected (as was Ptolemy’s theory) then facts embodying them are facts no longer and any influence they had on lower-level facts supported by fundamental theories will disappear.” (p. 151)
[1961, First Edition 1956] Kenneth E. Boulding, The Image
“... there are not such things such ‘facts’. There are only messages filtered through a changeable value system.”
(Chapter 1, p. 14)
[1969] Gunnar Myrdal, Objectivity in Social Research
“Facts do not organize themselves into concepts and theories just by being looked at; indeed, except within the framework of concepts and theories, there are no scientific fact but only chaos. There is an inescapable a priori element in all scientific work. Question must be asked before answer can be given. The questions are all expressions of our interest in the world; they are at bottom valuations. Valuations are thus necessarily involved already at the stage when we observe facts and carry on theoretical analysis, and not only at the stage when we draw political inferences from facts and valuations.” (p. 9)
(original quotation in G. Myrdal, The Political Element in the Development of Economic Theory, Preface to the English Edition, pp. ix-xvi)
[1961] Edward H. Carr, What is History?
“Values enter into the facts and are an essential part of them. Our values are an essential part of our equipment as human beings. It is through our values that we have that capacity to adapt ourselves to our environment, and to adapt our environment to ourselves, to acquire the mastery over our environment, which has made history a record of progress. But do not ... set up a false antithesis and a false separation between facts and values. Progress in history is achieved through the interdependence and interaction of facts and values.” (p. 131)
[1964] Abraham Kaplan, The Conduct of Inquiry
“... the distinction between facts and values cannot be drawn so sharply and so simply as is commonly supposed. Any conclusion as to what the facts are in a given case is the outcome of a process in which certain valuations also play an essential role.” (p. 254)
“... values enter into the determination of what constitutes a fact.” (p. 384)
[1968] Hans Ozbekhan in Erich Jantsch (editor), Perspectives of Planning
“... no fact approached with a view toward action, namely, with a view to using the knowledge gained from observing it, can be intelligently apprehended, understood or interpreted, except in value terms: in terms of whether it is good or bad for man, for the community, for society, for the present and for the future.”
("Toward a General Theory of Planning", p. 142)
[1970, First Edition 1957] Jacques Barzun, Henry F. Graff, The Modern Researcher
“... facts seldom occur pure, free from interpretation or ideas. We all make the familiar distinction between ‘gathering facts’ and ‘expressing ideas’, but in reality most of the facts we gather come dripping with ideas.”
“The only pure facts in historical reporting are those statements that express a conventional [accepted] relation in conventional [accepted] terms : Thomas Jefferson was born on April 2, 1743.”
(Chapter 6, pp. 129-130)
[1989, First Published 1902] Henri Poincaré, La Science et l'Hypothèse
"On fait la science avec des faits comme une maison avec des pierres ; mais une accumulation de faits n'est pas plus une science qu'un tas de pierre n'est une maison."
[“Science is built up of facts, as a house is built up with stones; but an accumulation of facts is no more a science than a heap of stones is a house.”]
(Chapter IX, p. 158)
[1970, First Edition 1957] Jacques Barzun, Henry F. Graff, The Modern Researcher
“Fact and idea in ceaseless interplay constitute the stuff of experience; or rather, in the seamless stuff of experience that we ponder within ourselves or report to others, we learn to make a distinction between the agreed-upon element of facts and the variable element of idea.”
(Chapter 6, p. 132)