On Brute Facts

Description

Wikipedia: G. E. M. Anscombe invented the concept of a fact being 'brute relative to' some other fact—the fact that I have handed over certain coins and stated that they are to pay for the potatoes is brute relative to the fact that I have paid the bill for the potatoes. Which in its turn may be among the facts which are brute relative to the fact that I am solvent. The propositions standing for the facts which are 'brute relative to' a certain fact F belong to a range some subset among which holds if F holds.(Anscombe ' Modern Moral Philosophy' Philosophy 33 No. 124 Jan 1958) No subset among this range logically implies F, as there may always be some further fact which puts the brute facts in a different light. e.g. the whole deal may be a piece of theatre.The brute facts usually amount to F in the context of an institution, e.g. the institution of money, but F does not itself contain a description of the institution in question. The range of propositions which can stand for facts which could be brute relative to F cannot be completely enumerated.