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Yanx Posted 16 years ago
Vocabulary

Fact Vs truth??

Hi:

One of my friends asked me a multiple choice question today regarding "fact" and "truth" problem. Before that I always used them interchangeably, but when I saw the question my hunch told me that the "truth" is right. So please kindly explain. Besides, I have also found an artilce explaining the differences between the two, as follows. Please also proofread it and indicate if what it says is correct. (In our native Chinese language the fact can be an aspect of a thing or one part of the truth, which is temporary, whereas the truth can be eternal. so English and Chinese may be different in this use)Thanks very much!

Question:

I said I like the movie. But the ________ is,I don't.
A.truth B.fact C.matter D.answer

Explanations I found online:

In terms of permanence, a fact happens to be more permanent, and almost always seems to have no changes. It is more constant than truths. For example, when you say that the sun will always rise from the east and set in the west, you are telling a fact, but when you say that you are in Los Angeles, then that is a truth, at least for that exact moment. Several hours from that time you may have gone somewhere else, making your previous statement a fallacy. Thus, a truth is something that is not universal, it is more subjective, and depends on the current situation. That’s why the truth’s existence is said to be more temporary than that of facts.

1. Facts are more objective when compared to the more subjective truths.
2. Facts are more permanent when compared to the more temporary truths.
3. Facts exist in reality, whereas truths are usually the things that one believes to be true, or the things that are true in the current situation.
4. Facts can also answer the ‘where,’ ‘when’ and ‘how’ questions, whereas truths answer the ‘why’ question.
  

Top answer

yanx I said I like the movie. But the __ is,I don't. answer In this instance both "fact" and "truth" are idiomatic and mean more or less the same thing.

  • yanx I said I like the movie.
  • But the __ is,I don't.
  • answer In this instance both "fact" and "truth" are idiomatic and mean more or less the same thing.
  • Generally speaking, "truth" tends to have more to do with human affairs, values and perceptions, while "fact" tends to have more to do with objective reality.
  • This is not an exact and clear-cut division though.
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4 Answers
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yanxI said I like the movie. But the __ is,I don't.
A.truth B.fact C.matter D.answer
In this instance both "fact" and "truth" are idiomatic and mean more or less the same thing.

Generally speaking, "truth" tends to have more to do with human affairs, values and perceptions, while "fact" tends to have more to do with objective reality. This is n
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I would agree with all of this as another native english speaker, but as someone who spent several years studying Modal Logics, I would add that a fact refers to an object where as a truth refers to a value.
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yanxI said I like the movie. But the __ is,I don't.
A.truth B.fact C.matter D.answer
I believe the intended reasoning is this:

I said I like the movie, but I don't. Therefore, I told a lie.

The opposite of telling a lie is telling the truth. So the answer is A truth.

CJ
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Opinion and belief cannot be truth because truth cannot be false. Opinion and belief can be false. So can matters of fact. A matter of fact can be logically opposite of what it truly is. So it can be true that an answer is false and it can be false that an answer is true. The dichotomy of true/false is the matter of fact.

Truth, is another matter entirely. Truth cannot be false, thus is a

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