LOGIC AS THE ESSENCE OF PHILOSOPHY 51 



The existing world consists of many things with many 

 qualities and relations. A complete description of the 

 existing world would require not only a catalogue of the 

 things, but also a mention of all their qualities and rela- 

 tions. We should have to know not only this, that, and 

 the other thing, but also which was red, which yellow, 

 which was earlier than which, which was between which 

 two others, and so on. When I speak of a " fact," I do 

 not mean one of the simple things in the world ; I mean 

 that a certain thing has a certain quality, or that certain 

 things have a certain relation. Thus, for example, 1 should 

 not call Napoleon a fact, but I should call it a fact that 

 he was ambitious, or that he married Josephine. Now a 

 fact, in this sense, is never simple, but always has two or 

 more constituents. When it simply assigns a quality to 

 a thing, it has only two constituents, the thing and the 

 quality. When it consists of a relation between two 

 things, it has three constituents, the things and the rela- 

 tion. When it consists of a relation between three things, 

 it has four constituents, and so on. The constituents of 

 facts, in the sense in which we are using the word " fact," 

 are not other facts, but are things and qualities or relations. 

 When we say that there are relations of more than two 

 terms, we mean that there are single facts consisting of a 

 single relation and more than two things. 1 do not mean 

 that one relation of two terms may hold between A and 

 B, and also between A and C, as, for example, a man is 

 the son of his father and also the son of his mother. 

 This constitutes two distinct facts : if we choose to treat 

 it as one fact, it is a fact which has facts for its constituents. 

 But the facts I am speaking of have no facts among 

 their constituents, but only things and relations. For 

 example, when A is jealous of B on account of C, there 

 is only one fact, involving three people ; there are not 



