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Full Idea
We might say that those truths that do not need truth-makers are those that are negative. Those that do need truth-makers are those that are positive.
Gist of Idea
Maybe only 'positive' truths need truth-makers
Source
Jonathan Tallant (Metaphysics: an introduction [2011], 10.8)
Book Ref
Tallant,Jonathan: 'Metaphysics - an introduction' [Continuum 2011], p.226
A Reaction
If you deny the existence of something, there is always an implicit domain for the denial, such as 'on the table', or 'in this building', or 'in the cosmos'. So why can't that domain be the truthmaker for a negative existential?
| 17282 | Truths need not always have their source in what exists [Fine,K] |
| 18509 | Not all truths need truthmakers - mathematics and logic seem to be just true [Heil] |
| 18473 | 'Maximalism' says every truth has an actual truthmaker [MacBride] |
| 18481 | Maximalism follows Russell, and optimalism (no negative or universal truthmakers) follows Wittgenstein [MacBride] |
| 18868 | Surely if some propositions are grounded in existence, they all are? [Cameron] |
| 18928 | If maximalism is necessary, then that nothing exists has a truthmaker, which it can't have [Cameron] |
| 17962 | The truth-maker principle is that every truth has a sufficient truth-maker [Forrest] |
| 18333 | Central idea: truths need truthmakers; and possibly all truths have them, and makers entail truths [Rami] |
| 18866 | Maybe only 'positive' truths need truth-makers [Tallant] |