"In this paper ... I will argue that there are no such things as facts."
I don't have the full article, but the short brief is sufficient to give a clue where the direction the author is taking to justify his claim.
A Matter of Fact
Lawrence E Johnson
FACTS HAVE A WAY of intruding into philosophical as well as practical affairs, and in each case we must in some way come to terms with them.
In this paper I will develop an account of facts—or, more accurately, of “fact” language, for I will argue that there are no such things as facts.
In brief, my conclusion will be that facts are merely linguistic substantives, having no status as entities, not even as propositional entities.
Illocutionary: relating to or being the communicative effect (such as commanding or requesting) of an utterance.
He urged me to shoot her. In saying that utterance, the speaker performs an illocutionary act of advice or order •
I am very grateful for taking me to the movie Page 4. In saying that utterance, the speaker performs an illocutionary act of thanking.
Would you like a cup of coffee?
I maintain that “fact” language is a many headed Hydra of which the common element is an illocutionary factor serving to express certification of the adequacy of the evidence for some directly verifiable empirical proposition.
Beyond this, “fact” language follows different patterns of which two are central to this inquiry, treating facts either as true propositions (or similar accusatives) of a particular sort, or treating them as worldly entities.
Yet no account of facts as entities, worldly or propositional, will allow them to fill all the roles facts are called upon to play.
When we employ “fact” language we are talking about some portion of the world, employing various useful linguistic patterns expressing properties and inter-relationships of things and events in the world, and conveying this illocutionary force; but to attempt to distil entities from these linguistic patterns is not justifiable.
In some part, the ideas presented here are anticipated in a paper by Frank Tillman,' through I present a broader theory intended to have utility in connection with the theory of truth.2
As any account of facts must also account for the roles they are assigned to perform, I will start with an investigation of some of these roles and their associated patterns of linguistic usage.
Of these, many shed little if any light on what facts actually are or are not.
However, there are two quite common roles assigned to facts by ...........
1 Frank A. Tillman, "Facts, Events, and True Statements," Theoria, XXXII (1966), PP. 116-129.
2 This paper is one part of a three pronged attack on the question of Truth.
https://www.pdcnet.org/revmetaph/conten ... _0508_0518