Mimesis and expression

a comparative study in aesthetics

Tomonobu Imamichi

pp. 139-147

in: Facts and values, Berlin, Springer, 1986

Abstract

The word "fact" derives, as is well known, from the Latin factum, meaning "that which is made." Immediately the question arises: by what or whom are facts made? We can avoid every ontological puzzle by simply answering that facts, as that which is made, are made by God, or by nature, or by man, at any rate they are made by something or somebody. Facts owe their existence to an efficient cause. A fact is, speaking generally, a being. According to traditional ontology a being has or even is an autonomous value since ens and bonum are interchangeable.