facticité

Facticité is a term used in philosophy, especially in phenomenology and existentialism, to denote the concrete, given conditions of a person's existence. It refers to the facts of one's situation—bodily conditions, past history, social position, language, culture, and the physical and historical environment—that influence and limit choices. Facticité contrasts with other dimensions of human existence such as freedom or transcendence.

In Jean-Paul Sartre's phenomenology, facticity is one side of a fundamental dichotomy with transcendence. Facticité comprises the non-chosen elements of existence, the "given" that the individual must contend with. Freedom, for Sartre, is not the absence of facticity but the capacity to act within and beyond it, to project oneself into possibilities and to redefine situations through choices. This interplay is central to his account of responsibility and authenticity.

In Martin Heidegger's thought, similar ideas appear as Geworfenheit or thrownness, the condition of existing in a world not of one's own making, with historical and practical contingencies that inform possibility.

Factuality thus grounds human existence without determining it completely. It allows for meaning and action, but also constrains them, making ethical responsibility and self-definition an ongoing task. The concept has been applied across existentialist, phenomenological, and critical theory discussions and has been the subject of various critiques, particularly regarding the balance between individual freedom and structural determinants.

Etymology notes: facticity derives from French facticité, from Latin factum or factus, and is used to highlight the contrast between the given and the chosen in human life.