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society in which it occurs. (There are enormous differences in approach between Popper
and Searle, but at a first approximation, the claim that an institutional fact is one kind
of statement about the world seems reasonable.)
Searle distinguishes institutional facts from brute facts. A brute fact is a statement about
something in the world outside of human society. Examples of brute facts are: 'Thylacines
are extinct', 'Canberra is cold in the winter', 'This is a 2.5 centimeter diameter gold-
coloured metal disk', 'This is a piece of white paper with black marks on it'. All of these
statements would continue to be true if our society disappeared. (Of course there would
have to be some sentient being to make the statements, perhaps robots or extraterrestri-
als.)
All objects, including statements, are for Searle brute facts. A written statement can be
black marks on white paper. A spoken statement is acoustic waves in the atmosphere
at a particular place at a particular time. What makes a brute fact an institutional fact is
how it is taken by the people concerned about it. In particular, an institutional fact is
taken as a record of an instance of a standardised speech act performed by a social insti-
tution in a human society. A 2.5 centimeter diameter gold-coloured metal disk is taken
to be a dollar coin in Australian society in 2004. A piece of white paper with black marks
on it is taken as an order for particular goods by Acme Manufacturing Company at a
particular time.
Searle's formulation starts with speech acts. A speech act is an action made by a desig-
nated person on behalf of a social institution that changes the social reality managed by
that institution. The quintessential speech act is giving a new baby a name. The action
is entering writing in blank spaces on a form, then lodging the form at the office of the
Registrar of Births in the jurisdiction in which the baby was born. The designated person
is one of the parents of the baby. The form is supplied by the Registrar of Births. The
form is lodged by handing it to a designated officer of the Registrar in their designated
office during the designated office hours. The social reality changed is that a new person
now exists with the name indicated on the form. The institutional reality managed by
the Registrar of Births is the population of citizens of the country of whose government
it is an arm. That the person into whom that baby develops is named its name is an in-
stitutional fact. Records of this institutional fact are stored by the agency and on birth
certificate and passport documents, but also exist in people's memories and are created
whenever the name is used, especially in other official documents.
Searle's formulation is 'brute fact X counts as institutional fact Y in context C'. In our
naming example, the brute fact is the filling in and lodging of the form. The institutional
fact is that the baby has the designated name. The context is everything else: the person
lodging the form is a parent, the office is the proper office, the form is given to the
proper person at the proper time, and so on.
What most clearly differentiates letter P from letter Q is that letter P is an institutional
fact. Sending and receipt of letter P by the appropriate people counts as the speech act
of placing an order. When this occurs, the world changes, in that the receiver of letter
P (the supplier) is entitled to ship the nominated quantity of the nominated product to
the sender (the purchaser) and expect payment in return. The copy of letter P (brute
fact) held by the supplier is a record of the institutional fact of the purchase order having
been made. The context includes the supplier being in the business of selling the nom-
inated product, the purchaser being a properly constituted customer, and so on.
The whole business is regulated by the laws of commerce in the relevant jurisdictions.
In addition, it is regulated by a body of largely implicit customary practice. This body
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