In
philosophy, a
state of affairs, also known as a
situation, is a way the
actual world must be in order to make some given
proposition about the actual world true; in other words, a state of affairs (situation) is a
truth-maker, whereas a
proposition is a
truth-bearer. Whereas states of affairs (situations) either
obtain or
fail-to-obtain, propositions are either
true or
false. In a sense of "state of affairs" favored by
Ernest Sosa, states of affairs are situational
conditions. In fact, in the
Cambridge Dictionary of Philosophy, Sosa defines a condition to be a state of affairs, "way things are" or situation—most commonly referred to by a
nominalization of a
sentence. The expression "Snow's being white", which refers to the condition snow's being white, is a nominalization of the sentence "Snow is white". "The
truth of the proposition that snow is white" is a nominalization of the sentence "the proposition that snow is white is true". Snow's being white is a necessary and sufficient condition for the truth of the proposition that snow is white. Conditions in this sense may be called situational.