BRAINY FACTS

A  fact  is a thing that is known to be consistent with objective  reality  and can be proven to be true with  evidence . For example, "This sentence contains words." is a  linguistic  fact, and "The sun is a star." is a  cosmological  fact. Further, " Abraham Lincoln  was the 16th President of the United States." and "Abraham Lincoln was assassinated." are also both facts, of  history . All of these statements have the  epistemic  quality  of being " ontologically  superior" to  opinion  or interpretation — they are either categorically necessary or supported by adequate documentation. Conversely, while it may be both consistent and true that "most cats are cute", it is not a fact (although in cases of opinion there is an argument for the acceptance of popular opinion as a statement of  common wisdom , particularly if ascertained by  scientific polling ). Generally speaking, facts transce...