In philosophical phenomeoloyg, "facticity" is the character of "factuality" and "contingency" of exsitence. Facticity can be understood as related to the "thusness" of everything which exists.
The term "facticity" was coined by Fichte to designate anything given without the possibility of rational justification, The term was later taken up by both existentialist and phenomenological philosophy (Sartre, Heidegger, Camus). The facticity of existence expresses the fact that our existence is unjustifiable, incomprehensible in itself. In phenomenological terms is states that the fact of us existing cannot be reduced nor fully grasped.
Characteristics and examples of facticity
Our existence is a fact that is true long before we recognise it. We are born before becoming aware of ourselves, we discover our existence as a fact that we can only observe and not explain. Our own existence eluds our full seeing and understanding of it like an object that cannot be viewed from all directions at once.
Facticty as Heidegger's throwness
Martin Heidegger calls facticity "thrownness" in which the individual is thrown into the world without any prior consent or explanation. The fact of our existence is for Heidegger, as many othe phenomenologists, the one thing that can never be deduced as "fact". Our existence is of-course an undeniable fact, yet it is one that is undeniably impossible to fully explain.
Heidegger's throwness means that we are always already alive within a certain historical status and within a certain horizon of possibilities.
See also: Meaning of facticity in existentialism
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