Gerald Bivens

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'analytic statements'=df

Leibniz spoke of the truths of reason as true in all possible worlds. Picturesqueness aside, this is to say that the truths of reason are those which could not possibly be false. In the same vein we hear analytic statements defined as statements whose denials are self-contradictory.1

A statement is analytic when it is true by virtue of meanings and independently of fact.2

Notes

  1. W.V.O. Quine, "Two Dogmas of Empiricism," in Publication (City of publication: Publisher, Year published), Page range.
  2. Ibid, Page range.