Legal Facts and Dependence on Representations

Barry Smith has recently argued against John Searle’s thesis that institutional facts exist because they are represented as existing in a certain community. Smith argues that institutional facts can exist even though they are not represented as existing and that institutional facts can fail to obta...

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Main Author: Jan Almäng
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: University of Vienna 2016-03-01
Series:Journal of Social Ontology
Subjects:
Online Access:https://journalofsocialontology.org/index.php/jso/article/view/6838
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author Jan Almäng
author_facet Jan Almäng
author_sort Jan Almäng
collection DOAJ
description Barry Smith has recently argued against John Searle’s thesis that institutional facts exist because they are represented as existing in a certain community. Smith argues that institutional facts can exist even though they are not represented as existing and that institutional facts can fail to obtain even though they are represented as obtaining. In this paper it is argued that Smith’s challenge can be met for a certain class of legal facts. I argue that in order to solve the problem posed by Smith, we must distinguish between three different kinds of institutional facts and between three different kinds of representation which sustain their existence.
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spelling doaj.art-79ae3408644b48be8452a8dd4e80cf472023-05-28T07:32:26ZengUniversity of ViennaJournal of Social Ontology2196-96632016-03-0121Legal Facts and Dependence on RepresentationsJan Almäng0NLA Høgskolen Barry Smith has recently argued against John Searle’s thesis that institutional facts exist because they are represented as existing in a certain community. Smith argues that institutional facts can exist even though they are not represented as existing and that institutional facts can fail to obtain even though they are represented as obtaining. In this paper it is argued that Smith’s challenge can be met for a certain class of legal facts. I argue that in order to solve the problem posed by Smith, we must distinguish between three different kinds of institutional facts and between three different kinds of representation which sustain their existence. https://journalofsocialontology.org/index.php/jso/article/view/6838social ontologylegal factsdocumentsinstitutionsJohn SearleBarry Smith
spellingShingle Jan Almäng
Legal Facts and Dependence on Representations
Journal of Social Ontology
social ontology
legal facts
documents
institutions
John Searle
Barry Smith
title Legal Facts and Dependence on Representations
title_full Legal Facts and Dependence on Representations
title_fullStr Legal Facts and Dependence on Representations
title_full_unstemmed Legal Facts and Dependence on Representations
title_short Legal Facts and Dependence on Representations
title_sort legal facts and dependence on representations
topic social ontology
legal facts
documents
institutions
John Searle
Barry Smith
url https://journalofsocialontology.org/index.php/jso/article/view/6838
work_keys_str_mv AT janalmang legalfactsanddependenceonrepresentations