Chosen facts …

Estudia: Phi, does necessity mean that something is what it is because it is what it is. This is confusing me.

Philo: Whoa, that is confusing said like that. Necessity identifies something about things. Existents are things that are here and existents are what they are by the law of identity and so they are necessary.

Estudia: This applies to all facts, right?

Philo: No, only to metaphysically given facts, not man-made ones. Man-made facts are chosen by man. They exist because of a human choice. There is nothing necessary about them other than that they have identity, causes and now exist. There is nothing necessary about those kinds of facts. Men can be creative and use or adapt the entities of his existence to his own purposes. You can create things, but you don’t have the power to change the metaphysically given facts. You must conform to the given and use the immutable facts to your benefit.

Estudia: Like I have to dig the gold out of the ground if I want to possess it, but I can design an elaborate pulley system to haul it up or not.

Philo: Sure, the gold in the ground with the properties it has is absolute. Your lift system is optional and chosen and a man-made fact. It must conform to the metaphysically given however, so your creativity does not defy the absolutism of reality.

Estudia: The Francis Bacon view that “Nature, to be commanded, must be obeyed.”

Philo: Exactly.