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facticity

facticity

9.9
The facts of a person's life that they cannot change and that limit their freedom
  • noun
  • /fæktɪsɪti/
  • Formal
translation icon : facticidad
  • In existential philosophy, understanding the facticity of one's circumstances is crucial for making authentic choices.

She also talks about this spontaneity, she says, in its facticity.

Examples

  • To be sure, this facticity is not merely inert and given; because it is human, it has a social dimension too, and can serve its owner to reshape and reinterpret himself or herself.

    Academic text (1998)
  • Her central theme of the "triumph of freedom over facticity" (which is also ambiguity) entails the search for real foundational content, without absolute goals or a fixed future.

    Academic text (2002)
  • Those objections, in fact, help give rise to the utopian will that issues a challenge, so to speak, to the facticity of the given.

    Academic text (1997)
  • Are facts independent of human values, or is the determination of the facticity of a phenomenon dependent on a prior belief in some value?

    Academic text (1990)
  • By emphasizing the facticity and distinctiveness of all times, places, and peoples, history promotes appreciation of their uniqueness.

    Academic text (1992)
  • The concept of facticity highlights how our social and historical context can limit our sense of freedom.

  • Acknowledging the facticity of his upbringing helped him realize the influences shaping his personal beliefs.

Antonyms

1.0

One thing you pick or the act of picking from several things

1.0

The right to act, speak, or think as you want without being stopped

Surface Forms

facticity singular
facticities plural

Morphology

facticity = fact (semi-transparent) = fact + icity

Formed from 'fact' + '-icity', but the philosophical sense referring to the set of concrete conditions limiting freedom is a specialized extension that may not be obvious to average learners.

Etymology

In philosophy, facticity also comes from the root fact ('a thing that is real or done'). It points to the real, 'given' facts of a person's life that limit their freedom and shape their choices.