What is the difference between a fact and a proposition? Often these two terms are confuted, so here a little informal clearing up.
First of all: Facts are. Facts happen in the world. When a stone drops from a cliff, and you witnessed it, you were witness of a fact. This fact happened. It cannot unhappen, and neither can it not have happened (because it happened). There are no counterfactual facts, as there are no negated facts or disjunctions of facts; and of course no false facts.
Those concepts (negation, counterfactuality, disjunction etc) only apply to texts about facts, and let’s call them propositions for simplicity’s sake. Propositions can be either true or false. Now, when are they true? Propositions are true when they can be conceptually mapped to a fact in the world in a consistent way. Important is the word “conceptual”. There are only truths regarding to conceptual systems, viz. there are no absolute truths (when we are talking about propositions).
Notice the difference to relativism here: relativists say there is no truth. Which is, of course, a mistaken view resting on a confused ontology.
In short: Facts are (ontological category). Propositions are stated (by someone, a cognitive system, a human). Propositions are true or false in relation to facts, in relation to the cognitive system.
Facts, when they occur, are ontologically objective (e.g. a meteorite crashing into the earth); but reporting can only be true in a conceptual system. Example: to energy beings not “feeling” matter but just surfing the energy waves of the void, a proposition of the sort: “a meteorite crashed into the earth” would not make much sense. Allthough they would witness certain energy turbulences. This is the difference between fact and proposition.
And failing to make this distinction leads to relativism.
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