counterfactual

English

Etymology

counter- +‎ factual

Pronunciation

• (Canada) IPA^(key): /ˌkaʊntɚˈfæktʃuəl/
• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˌkaʊn.tə(ɹ)ˈfæk.tʃu.əl/

• CA synth

  (file)

Adjective

counterfactual

1. Contrary to known or agreed facts; untrue.

   Synonym: contrafactual

2. Of or in comparison to a hypothetical state of the world.
   • 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)‎^[1]:

     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.

   • 2019 April 11, Marcel Theroux, “Machines Like Me by Ian McEwan review – intelligent mischief”, in The Guardian‎^[2]:

     The counterfactual 1982 of the novel plays variations on our historical record and contains clear allusions to the present.

Translations

contrary to the facts

• French: contrefactuel (fr)
• German: kontrafaktisch (de)
• Hungarian: hamis (hu), valótlan (hu), kontrafaktuális, a tényeknek ellentmondó
• Italian: controfattuale (it)
• Occitan: contrafactual
• Polish: kontrfaktyczny (pl)
• Portuguese: contrafatual
• Russian: контрафактивный (kontrafaktivnyj)
• Spanish: contrafactual
• Swedish: kontrafaktisk

Noun

Examples (linguistics)
If I had arrived on time . . .

counterfactual (plural counterfactuals)

1. A claim, hypothesis, or other belief that is contrary to the facts.
2. 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^[3], →ISSN:

     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^[4], 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^[5]:

     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^[6]:

     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^[7], →ISSN:

     Imagine a counterfactual in which we started relaxing restrictions at an even earlier time, just as the cases began to trend downward.

3. (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