A rhetorical question (further explaination of facts)?

Question

Mt. Everest is the highest mountain on Earth. But before it was discovered, no one knew about it, so at the time you could walk up to anybody, ask them if they agreed that Mt. Everest was the tallest mountain on earth, and they would either disagree or be confused. But even before it was discovered, it was still there, and it was still the tallest mountain on Earth. My question to you is that of a teacher reviewing a student: What is a fact?

Answer 1

In philosophy, a fact is the state of affairs in reality that corresponds to a true proposition in a human language. The relationship between non-trivially true statements (i.e. not tautologies) and facts is one of the provinces of epistemology.
In science 'fact' is an objective and verifiable observation.

Outside of science, a word 'fact' may be associated with some of the following:

A honest observation confirmed by widely respected observers.
Errors are common in the interpretation of the meaning of observations.
Power is frequently used to force the politcally correct interpretation of an observation.
A repeatedly observed regularity.
One observation of any phenomenon does not necessarily make it a fact. Repeatability of an observation is required usually by using the stated procedures or operational definitions of a phenomenon.
Something thought to be actual as opposed to invented.
Something concrete used as a basis for further interpretation.
Information about a particular subject.
Something believed to be the case.

Answer 2

The fact is before Mt Everest was discovered to be the highest mountain: who really cared?

Answer 3

Even with all of your updates, I still think you don't understand what "per capita" means. As you point out, different people in the United States receive different levels of care depending on their ability to pay for it. So, if only a portion of our citizens were receiving healthcare, then they should pull down the average when balanced against the people who pay for, and receive, their own healthcare. This is, however, not the case; we Americans pay more for our healthcare and get less for it than the Canadians, the British, the Japanese or the Singaporeans do. By any sensible metric, the healthcare system in the United States is a grotesquely inefficient debacle. Additionally, you're confusing socialized health insurance with socialized medicine. In socialized health insurance, there is one major purchaser of healthcare (this is a monopsony, the converse of a monopoly); this is the system in Canada, which is like Medicare here in the United States. In socialized medicine, the government employs the doctors and runs the hospitals directly; this is the system in Britain (the National Health Service), which is like the VA here in the United States. Neither nation is communist (there are very few of those around any more), and, outside of healthcare, the government doesn't run much of the major industries--it's not particularly accurate to refer to either government as socialist, either. Furthermore, the bogeyman you conjure up--that of faceless bureaucrats consigning people to death by spreadsheet--is already here, it's already happening, and it's much worse than it is in nations with the systems that you think would be such a step down. Care is routinely denied because it's too expensive. Heck, care is routinely denied because the insurance company can swing a bigger profit if it makes it more difficult for its subscribers to get healthcare. Finally, I have no idea where you got the idea that Canadian outcomes for colorectal cancer are worse than American outcomes; according to the study in the third link, Canadian survival rates for colorectal cancer are better than American rates. All this is accomplished for roughly *half* the price Americans pay for our healthcare.

Answer 4

A rhetorical question is asked when an answer is not needed or expected. A fact is a thing that has actually happened or is true. If you are a teacher reviewing me my grade will be a fact.

Answer 5

for me...it is what i have seen, touched, or felt in my OWN life, with my own eyes...
everything else, is left to question.

Science is nothing but perception.
—Plato
I don't believe it. Prove it to me and I still won't believe it.
—Douglas Adams
Life, the Universe and Everything, 1982
Popular opinions, on subjects not palpable to sense, are often true, but seldom or never the whole truth.
—John Stuart Mill
On Liberty, 1859

Answer 6

If Mt.Everest wasn't discovered, how could you ask anyone if it was the highest mountain?

Answer 7

sorry to say ..but fact today is alot of time just a opinion..
what people want or choose to believe..you can say the sun is hot....but have you ever touched it..

Answer 8

A fact is proven. You should be asking what is "proof".

Answer 9

go outside-talk to people please