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Discussion » Questions » Life and Society » Do Facts Matter?

Do Facts Matter?

Posted - March 27, 2017

Responses


  • Apparently not much anymore. I hate the world today though .... So my answer might be different tomorrow .... That's a fact ;
      March 27, 2017 5:37 PM MDT
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  •   March 27, 2017 5:41 PM MDT
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  • lol :) yep!!
      March 27, 2017 5:42 PM MDT
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  • 22891
    i think they do
      March 27, 2017 5:54 PM MDT
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  • Who decides what is a "fact"?  There are many realities. Each with facts. Each with falsehoods. A fact in one reality may be a falsehood in another. All things are true. All things are false.  Meditate on this and know.
      March 27, 2017 5:55 PM MDT
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  • 63
    "Who decides what is a "fact"? " That's an opinion.

    Facts are:

    something that truly exists or happens

    something that has actual existence

    a true piece of information

    A thing that is indisputably the case

    Actuality

    Meditate on this and know.
      March 28, 2017 5:57 AM MDT
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  • Premises 3 and 4 are circular.  They state exactly what the question is asking.  To cite as in example a very shameful piece of US history.  There was a time when it was a true piece of information, an indisputable case that some people were so inferior that their enslavement was permissible and just.  Neither is the actuality, or so one would hope we now see. 
      March 28, 2017 7:43 AM MDT
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  • 63
    "Premises 3 and 4 are circular." ? I don't see it. Definitions of the word fact, I found in several dictionaries.
    The " true piece of information" in your example is an opinion. "enslavement was permissible and just", by whom? That's an interpretation of the fact that there were slaves. Whoever thought it permissible, it was just, their opinion.

      March 28, 2017 5:29 PM MDT
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  • Yes, the definition of "fact" citied is correct.  To my example, people holding slaves in the US would have held it to be a fact the Africans were an inferior race suited, even created to be slaves.  Thankfully few would hold so today.  My point is that what is accepted as a "fact" can change as society and knowledge change.  There are facts the remain fact, recognized or not, e.g. the Sun is the center of our solar system. History is replete with ideas once held to be "facts" later to be disproven. One suspects there are facts we hold today that may well be overturned in the future.  
      March 28, 2017 5:41 PM MDT
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  • 63
    "There are facts the remain fact, recognized or not, e.g. the Sun is the center of our solar system." Have you not heard of the geocentric model ?
      March 29, 2017 6:08 AM MDT
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  • Yes.  This is an example of my point.  The geocentric model was for centuries held as fact.  But it is not the case.
      March 29, 2017 8:10 AM MDT
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  • 63
    Geocentric and heliocentric are theories.

    1. Facts are observations whereas theories are the explanations to those observations.

    2. Theories are vague truths or unclear facts whereas facts are really facts.

      March 29, 2017 5:40 PM MDT
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  • Facts matter; facts can stand on their own merits, but it is opinion of facts that causes disputes. You are entitled to your own opinion, but you are not entitled to your own facts. 

    It is (in fact) our quest of facts that raised our kind from our primitive ancestors.  This post was edited by Benedict Arnold at March 28, 2017 6:14 AM MDT
      March 27, 2017 6:15 PM MDT
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  • They matter to me. Even so, experiences teaches us quickly that opinion and fact may have very little in common.
      March 27, 2017 6:19 PM MDT
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  • They should.


      March 27, 2017 6:26 PM MDT
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  • Loved kids in the hall :) these are the Daves I know, I know .... :) 
      March 27, 2017 6:29 PM MDT
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  • Some of the are David but most of them are Dave.  They all have their own hands and they come from different moms. This post was edited by Benedict Arnold at March 28, 2017 6:15 AM MDT
      March 27, 2017 6:31 PM MDT
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  • Lol yeah :) my favourite skit was his character ... Same dude... " if my head was a head of cabbage .. How much would it weiiiigh?" 
      March 27, 2017 6:33 PM MDT
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  • This is my favorite scetch.

      March 27, 2017 6:42 PM MDT
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  • Lol:) Thought was just viewed in Canada :) I had a HUGH  crush on Dave McCullough when I was a teen .. I'm odd :/ DAVE!

    https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=JF1chLj1fro
      March 27, 2017 7:43 PM MDT
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  • Noooo.   It got picked up quick on HBO here and was really popular.
      March 28, 2017 4:41 AM MDT
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  •  "They still seem matter to in Japan."  ...  more than half of Japanese households still have fax machines and businesses say they are a "required communication tool."
      March 27, 2017 6:42 PM MDT
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  • 5614
    Whose?
      March 28, 2017 12:38 AM MDT
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  • 5835
    I never quite figured that out. Most places, if I post facts I get called a moron. Here, if I post facts I get called confrontational. You might have noticed that I tend to post a lot of pictures of animals. That's why.

      March 28, 2017 12:52 AM MDT
    2