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Literary notes about Positive (AI summary)

The term "positive" serves multiple functions across literary discourse, ranging from a marker of definitive assurance to an indicator of clear evidence and personal conviction. It is frequently employed to stress certainty or factual proof, as in contexts where authors cite unambiguous demonstrations of error ([1]) or demand concrete validation ([2], [3]). At the same time, "positive" imbues descriptions of personal experience and emotional states with a sense of determination or unwavering intent, seen when narrators assert their own direct encounters ([4]) or when characters commit themselves to decisive actions ([5], [6]). In more technical or philosophical discussions, the word contrasts with its negative counterpart to highlight distinct qualities and structured arguments ([7], [8], [9]). Thus, "positive" enriches literary expression by bridging subjective certainty with objective validation in various forms and frameworks ([10], [11]).
  1. On this the rustic produced the little pig from his cloak and showed by the most positive proof the greatness of their mistake.
    — from Aesop's Fables by Aesop
  2. “You will oblige me; but I must have some positive proof.
    — from The Memoirs of Jacques Casanova de Seingalt, 1725-1798. Complete by Giacomo Casanova
  3. I am as positive that yesterday was Sunday as I am that I sit upon this chair.” KATE.
    — from The Works of Edgar Allan Poe, The Raven Edition by Edgar Allan Poe
  4. What I have now to tell is of my own actual knowledge—of my own positive and personal experience.
    — from The Works of Edgar Allan Poe, The Raven Edition by Edgar Allan Poe
  5. She became restive, insisted upon her rights, and finally announced her positive intention of going to a certain ball.
    — from Adventures of Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle
  6. Still, of course, one can’t refuse a lady, and such a very positive one, too.
    — from The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle
  7. merely its form is positive but its intent is negative.
    — from Criminal Psychology: A Manual for Judges, Practitioners, and Students by Hans Gross
  8. For, in this case, negative evidence is worth little, while any positive evidence is conclusive.
    — from The Subjection of Women by John Stuart Mill
  9. The comparative is formed from the base of the positive by adding -ior masc.
    — from The Declaration of Independence of the United States of America by Thomas Jefferson
  10. Can sociology become positive without becoming experimental?
    — from Introduction to the Science of Sociology by E. W. Burgess and Robert Ezra Park
  11. 4 This hypothesis which remains a bare undeveloped possibility in the earlier work is put forward as a positive doctrine in the Critique of Judgement.
    — from Kant's Critique of Judgement by Immanuel Kant

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