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Full Idea
There are no positive or negative facts. 'Positive' and 'negative' refer to the form of propositions, and not to the facts which verify or falsify them.
Gist of Idea
There are no positive or negative facts; these are just the forms of propositions
Source
Ludwig Wittgenstein (Lectures 1930-32 (student notes) [1931], C XIII)
Book Ref
Wittgenstein,Ludwig: 'Lectures in Cambridge 1930-32', ed/tr. Lee,Desmond [Blackwell 1980], p.93
A Reaction
Personally I think if we are going to allow the world to be full of 'facts', then there are negative, conjunctive, disjunctive and hypothetical facts.
| 21673 | There are simple and complex facts; the latter depend on further facts [Chrysippus, by Cicero] |
| 18376 | Russell asserts atomic, existential, negative and general facts [Russell, by Armstrong] |
| 18737 | There are no positive or negative facts; these are just the forms of propositions [Wittgenstein] |
| 15201 | That Queen Anne is dead is a 'general fact', not a fact about Queen Anne [Prior,AN] |
| 17688 | Negative facts are supervenient on positive facts, suggesting they are positive facts [Armstrong] |
| 8163 | Since 'no bird here' and 'no squirrel here' seem the same, we must talk of 'atomic' facts [Dummett] |
| 6075 | Facts are object-plus-extension, or property-plus-set-of-properties, or object-plus-property [McGinn] |
| 19322 | Why can there not be disjunctive, conditional and negative facts? [Kirkham] |
| 15071 | Tensed and tenseless sentences state two sorts of fact, which belong to two different 'realms' of reality [Fine,K] |
| 10367 | There is only one fact - the True [Schaffer,J] |
| 15338 | We may believe in atomic facts, but surely not complex disjunctive ones? [Horsten] |
| 17293 | Worldly facts are obtaining states of affairs, with constituents; conceptual facts also depend on concepts [Audi,P] |