Could be true includes everything that is not false. Not necessarily true includes everything that could be false. That is, any statement that we cannot prove false could be true. Any statement that we cannot prove to be true is not necessarily true.
The same is true of their "false" equivalents. Any statement that could be false is one that we cannot prove must be true, and any statement that is not necessarily false is one that could be true.
balde_kadija@yahoo.comJuly 10, 2022
Okayyyy....this is still quite muddled to me. In that case, can you explain it to me in terms of which one is the strongest in terms of true? For example, could you rank them in order of closest to Must Be True to farthest from Must Be True.
According to what you are saying above, I think I would rank them as: Could Be True being stronger followed by Not Necessarily True (same with their false equivalents)
Emil-KunkinJuly 11, 2022
Hi Balde,
I like to imagine these on a spectrum going from zero to one- with zero being completely false, to 1 being completely true.
That is, must be true is 1, and must be false is zero.
In this case, could be true (which is the same as not necessarily false) is anything other than zero. As long as it is not false, it could be true.
Not necessarily true (which is the same thing as could be false)would be anything other than 1. As long as it is not something that must be true, it is not necessarily true.
In this sense, could be true is closer to must be true than not necessarily true- but I dont think this is a great way to think about it. I would try to categorize it as follows. Every statement either must be true, must be false, or falls somewhere in between. Could be true includes all statements that are not a must be false, and could be false include all statements that are not a must be true.
