Arianna Betti, “Against Facts” (MIT Press, 2015)
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What is the central claim of Arianna Betti’s *Against Facts*?
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Hello and welcome to New Books and Philosophy, a podcast channel with the New Books Network. I'm Carrie Figdor, Associate Professor of Philosophy at the University of Iowa. I'm co host of the channel along with Robert Talise, Professor of Philosophy at Vanderbilt University. Together we bring you conversations with philosophers about their new books, drawing from a wide range of areas of contemporary philosophical inquiry. Today's interview is with Ariana Betty, professor of philosophy at the University of Amsterdam. Her new book, Against Facts, is just out from the MIT Press. The British philosopher and logician Bertrand Russell once said that it is a truism that there are facts. For example, the planets revolve around the sun, two plus two equals four, elephants are bigger than mice, and so on.
In Against Facts, Betty argues that not only is it not a truism that there are facts, but that on either of the basic views of what facts are, there aren't any. Betty argues that we don't need to posit facts either as truth makers or as the reference of that clauses. We can express truths about the world and provide an adequate semantics without needing recourse to entities called facts. Her finely articulated discussion of facts and her rebuttal of such defenders of facts as Russell, David Armstrong, Kit Fine, and other philosophers will be A primary source of discussions about facts and related notions of propositions and states of affairs for years to come. Let's turn to the interview.
Hello, Ariana Betty, are you there? Oh yes, I'm here. Delighted to be here. Oh well welcome to New Books in Philosophy. Thank you.
Uh I'm very pleased to be talking about your new book, Against Facts. Um it should be a very very interesting conversation about, you know, contemporary metaphysics and and discussions about facts and propositions and states of affairs and um all sorts of related cognate notions that have to do with, you know, establishing and speaking truths. Mm-hmm. Um Uh before we get into the the book itself, maybe you can say a word about uh your background as a philosopher, how you how you came to philosophy and how you came to write this particular book.
So right. I'm so my interest in philosophy started I I I would say uh especially in high school, so in high school I was one of those fortunate people who could study philosophy. And what fascinated me about it was that uh simply the level of abstractness. So I just wanted to go to the most abstract way to looking at things. Um so I I took philosophy. I took up philosophy in in uh at university and I was immediately fascinated by logic. Uh I did not become a logician, or at least not one of those technical logicians are truth seeker.
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Chapters
8 chapters
1
What is the central claim of Arianna Betti’s *Against Facts*?
0:00–8:05
2
How does Betti’s philosophical background shape her view on facts?
8:05–15:46
3
Why does Betti argue that ‘that‑clauses’ do not refer to any facts?
15:46–23:29
4
What is the Armstrong compositional‑fact argument and how is it refuted?
23:29–31:57
5
How does Betti distinguish compositional facts from propositional facts?
31:57–40:15
6
Does Betti adopt an eliminativist or a reductionist stance toward facts?
40:15–49:25
7
What are the implications of rejecting facts for philosophy of mind and language?
49:25–57:34
8
What future projects does Betti plan after *Against Facts*?
57:34–1:05:24
Speakers
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