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On What it Takes for There to Be No Fact of the Matter
Author(s) -
Azzouni Jody,
Bueno Otávio
Publication year - 2008
Publication title -
noûs
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.574
H-Index - 66
eISSN - 1468-0068
pISSN - 0029-4624
DOI - 10.1111/j.1468-0068.2008.00700.x
Subject(s) - contradiction , epistemology , context (archaeology) , tautology (logic) , philosophy , law of excluded middle , computer science , history , autoepistemic logic , archaeology , multimodal logic , description logic , programming language
Philosophers are very fond of making non‐factualist claims—claims to the effect that there is no fact of the matter as to whether something is the case. But can these claims be coherently stated in the context of classical logic? Some care is needed here, we argue, otherwise one ends up denying a tautology or embracing a contradiction. In the end, we think there are only two strategies available to someone who wants to be a non‐factualist about something, and remain within the province of classical logic. But one of these strategies is rather controversial, and the other requires substantially more work than is often supposed. Being a non‐factualist is no easy business, and it may not be the most philosophically perspicuous way to go.