On brute facts

Abstract

The facts are such only in the context of our institutions. Every description of an action presupposes a context of normal procedure, but that context is not even implicitly described by the description. Thus, they are "brute facts" those whose occurrence, in a proper context, makes true or false a description. This paper analyses some relations between a description —say A— and descriptions of facts which are brute in relation to the facts described by A.