Fact

[10] Fact may also indicate findings derived through a process of evaluation, including review of testimony, direct observation, or otherwise; as distinguishable from matters of inference or speculation.

Roger Bacon wrote "If in other sciences we should arrive at certainty without doubt and truth without error, it behooves us to place the foundations of knowledge in mathematics.

Difficulties arise, however, in attempting to identify the constituent parts of negative, modal, disjunctive, or moral facts.

Those who insist there is a logical gulf between facts and values, such that it is fallacious to attempt to derive values (e.g., "it is good to give food to hungry people") from facts (e.g., "people will die if they can't eat"), include G. E. Moore, who called attempting to do so the naturalistic fallacy.

[citation needed] In mathematics, a fact is a statement (called a theorem) that can be proven by logical argument from certain axioms and definitions.

A scientific fact is the result of a repeatable careful observation or measurement by experimentation or other means, also called empirical evidence.

Philosophers and scientists are careful to distinguish between: 1) states of affairs in the external world and 2) assertions of fact that may be considered relevant in scientific analysis.

[21] Pertinent issues raised by this inquiry include: Consistent with the idea of confirmation holism, some scholars assert "fact" to be necessarily "theory-laden" to some degree.

Similarly, Percy Williams Bridgman is credited with the methodological position known as operationalism, which asserts that all observations are not only influenced, but necessarily defined, by the means and assumptions used to measure them.

[23] In addition to these considerations, there are the social and institutional measures, such as peer review and accreditation, that are intended to promote factual accuracy among other interests in scientific study.

argues that the inherent biases from the gathering of facts makes the objective truth of any historical perspective idealistic and impossible.

Additionally, the composition of history is inevitably made up by the compilation of many different biases of fact finding – all compounded over time.

[citation needed] This section of the article emphasizes common law jurisprudence as primarily represented in Anglo-American–based legal tradition.

In most common law jurisdictions, the general concept and analysis of fact reflects fundamental principles of jurisprudence, and is supported by several well-established standards.

These include: A party (e.g., plaintiff) to a civil suit generally must clearly state the relevant allegations of fact that form the basis of a claim.

Parties who face uncertainties regarding facts and circumstances attendant to their side in a dispute may sometimes invoke alternative pleading.