Brute fact
Encyclopedia
Brute facts are facts which are facts in and of themselves, while institutional facts are considered conventional
Convention (norm)
A convention is a set of agreed, stipulated or generally accepted standards, norms, social norms or criteria, often taking the form of a custom....

. Institutional facts require the support of an institution
Institution
An institution is any structure or mechanism of social order and cooperation governing the behavior of a set of individuals within a given human community...

. The term was coined by G. E. M. Anscombe
G. E. M. Anscombe
Gertrude Elizabeth Margaret Anscombe , better known as Elizabeth Anscombe, was a British analytic philosopher from Ireland. A student of Ludwig Wittgenstein, she became an authority on his work and edited and translated many books drawn from his writings, above all his Philosophical Investigations...

 and popularized by John Searle
John Searle
John Rogers Searle is an American philosopher and currently the Slusser Professor of Philosophy at the University of California, Berkeley.-Biography:...

 (although the view about brute facts that John Searle popularized was precisely one that Anscombe was attempting to debunk).

For instance, the fact that a certain piece of paper is money
Money
Money is any object or record that is generally accepted as payment for goods and services and repayment of debts in a given country or socio-economic context. The main functions of money are distinguished as: a medium of exchange; a unit of account; a store of value; and, occasionally in the past,...

 is an institutional fact, because that property is dependent on the institution that created and controls that money and that piece of paper will only be money as long as the members of that society believe that it is so. However, it is a brute fact that a certain piece of paper is a piece of paper.

While brute facts are true in and of themselves, institutional facts are, arguably, conventional
Convention (norm)
A convention is a set of agreed, stipulated or generally accepted standards, norms, social norms or criteria, often taking the form of a custom....

.

The term might also be used to refer generally to facts that lack explanations, or which explain themselves. It might be argued that some facts lack causal explanations. Suppose the universe began about 14 billion years ago. Then, plausibly, the very first facts about the universe lack a causal explanation. Interest has been recently revived in a second kind of explanation. Consider these facts:
  1. There was a war in Europe in 1945
  2. People were acting in certain warlike ways. In 1945, people of Europe were building firearms, hiding in basements, killing soldiers, saving food rations, feeling afraid of planes flying over, feeling national pride and hatred towards any enemy representation, etc.


These aren't merely facts that were true at the same time; rather, fact #2 — or some variation of it — explains fact #1. And it might be argued that the facts about behavior are explained by facts of the kind that neuroscientists and biologists study. We may continue digging for explanations until we reach a set of rock-bottom facts — possibly the facts about the movement of subatomic particles — and these facts also might be called brute.

See also

  • is and ought problem
    Is-ought problem
    The is–ought problem in meta-ethics as articulated by Scottish philosopher and historian, David Hume , is that many writers make claims about what ought to be on the basis of statements about what is...

     - the distinction between factual
    Fact
    A fact is something that has really occurred or is actually the case. The usual test for a statement of fact is verifiability, that is whether it can be shown to correspond to experience. Standard reference works are often used to check facts...

     claims and value
    Value theory
    Value theory encompasses a range of approaches to understanding how, why and to what degree people should value things; whether the thing is a person, idea, object, or anything else. This investigation began in ancient philosophy, where it is called axiology or ethics. Early philosophical...

     or normative
    Norm (philosophy)
    Norms are concepts of practical import, oriented to effecting an action, rather than conceptual abstractions that describe, explain, and express. Normative sentences imply “ought-to” types of statements and assertions, in distinction to sentences that provide “is” types of statements and assertions...

     claims
  • matter of fact and matter of law
    Question of fact
    In law, a question of fact is a question which must be answered by reference to facts and evidence, and inferences arising from those facts. Such a question is distinct from a question of law, which must be answered by applying relevant legal principles...


Further reading

  • "Brute Fact", Oxford Companion to Philosophy, 2005.
  • Anscombe, G. E. M. (1958): "On Brute facts". Analysis 18: 69-72.
  • "brute fact." The Blackwell Dictionary of Western Philosophy. Bunnin Nicholas and Jiyuan Yu (eds).
  • Rosen, Gideon. "Metaphysical Dependence: Grounding and Reduction", in *Modality*, Bob Hale and Aviv Hoffmann, eds.
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