counterfactual
English
Etymology
counter- + factual
Pronunciation
- (Canada) IPA(key): /ˌkaʊntɚˈfæktʃuəl/
- (UK) IPA(key): /ˌkaʊn.tə(ɹ)ˈfæk.tʃu.əl/
CA synth (file)
Adjective
counterfactual
- Contrary to known or agreed facts; untrue.
- Synonym: contrafactual
- 2014 September 15, Martin Gayford, “There's more to Ming than a vase [print version: 16 August 2014, pp. R6–R7]”, in The Daily Telegraph (Review):
- What would have happened if those great Chinese voyages [by Zheng He] had continued? It's one of those questions in counter-factual history about which it is impossible to be sure.
- Of or in comparison to a hypothetical state of the world.
- 2019 April 11, Marcel Theroux, “Machines Like Me by Ian McEwan review – intelligent mischief”, in The Guardian:
- The counterfactual 1982 of the novel plays variations on our historical record and contains clear allusions to the present.
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Translations
contrary to the facts
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Noun
Examples (linguistics) |
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counterfactual (plural counterfactuals)
- A claim, hypothesis, or other belief that is contrary to the facts.
- A hypothetical state of the world, used to assess the impact of an action.
- 2004 September 5, Laura Miller, “Imagine”, in The New York Times, ISSN 0362-4331:
- Just as counterfactuals employ too much imagination to qualify as historical works, alternate history often labors under too great a load of artificial "facts" to take flight as fiction.
- 2010 September 1, Ross Douthat, “Iraq in the Long Run”, in New York Times, retrieved 2021-07-15:
- We can spin out complicated counterfactuals that justify the Iraq invasion, and complicated counterfactuals that make it look even worse.
- 2015 December 3, Lee Drutman, “Here's the real reason we don't have gun reform”, in Vox:
- The implicit counterfactual — that these members would support gun control if not for the $1,000 they received from the NRA — seems unlikely to me.
- 2016 February 11, Noah Berlatsky, quoting Neal Roese, “'What if?': Why we can't get enough of counterfactual shows”, in The Guardian:
- Roese also says counterfactuals can serve emotional purposes. You can think about how things could have been worse, and so feel better about yourself, and grateful for where you are.
- 2021 May 14, Dashiell Young-Saver, “The Math of Ending the Pandemic: Exponential Growth and Decay”, in The New York Times, ISSN 0362-4331:
- Imagine a counterfactual in which we started relaxing restrictions at an even earlier time, just as the cases began to trend downward.
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- (linguistics, philosophy) A conditional statement in which the conditional clause is false.
Derived terms
- counterfactualist
- counterfactuality
See also
- alternative fact
- alternate history
- what-if
Further reading
- counterfactual history on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
- counterfactual conditional on Wikipedia.Wikipedia