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Full Idea
It's not obvious that there are enough positive states out there to underwrite all the negative truths. Even though it may be true that this liquid is odourless this needn't be because there's something further about it that excludes its being odourless.
Gist of Idea
There aren't enough positive states out there to support all the negative truths
Source
Fraser MacBride (Truthmakers [2013], 2.1.4.1)
Book Ref
'Stanford Online Encyclopaedia of Philosophy', ed/tr. Stanford University [plato.stanford.edu], p.14
A Reaction
What is the ontological status of all these hypothetical truths? What is the truthmaker for 'a trillion trillion negative truths exist'? What is the status of 'this is not not-red'?
| 21544 | It seems that when a proposition is false, something must fail to subsist [Russell] |
| 15547 | Negative existentials have 'totality facts' as truthmakers [Armstrong, by Lewis] |
| 18377 | Negative truths have as truthmakers all states of affairs relevant to the truth [Armstrong] |
| 18382 | The nature of arctic animals is truthmaker for the absence of penguins there [Armstrong] |
| 15549 | If it were true that nothing at all existed, would that have a truthmaker? [Lewis] |
| 9139 | If nothing exists, no truthmakers could make 'Nothing exists' true [Sorensen] |
| 14394 | It is implausible that claims about non-existence are about existing things [Merricks] |
| 18479 | There are different types of truthmakers for different types of negative truth [MacBride] |
| 18477 | There aren't enough positive states out there to support all the negative truths [MacBride] |
| 18869 | Without truthmakers, negative truths must be ungrounded [Cameron] |