speculative statement is a statement that is made based on an assumption that may or may not turn out to be true.
A sentence containing a speculative statement is known as a speculation.
In some instances, a speculation may have more than one possible truth. For example, the sentence “If I had a bomb, I would make it explode.” could be considered a possible truth in the sense that it has the appearance of a statement but is actually only a guess. This is usually a good way to determine if a statement is “speculative” or not.
A statement that is speculative is one that may or may not turn out to be true. A statement that is known to be true but speculative may be true because it is based on an assumption that may or may not turn out to be true. For example, the sentence If I had a bomb, I would make it explode. could be considered a possible truth in the sense that it has the appearance of a statement but is actually only a guess.
A guess is a guess, but it is not a statement. It is often used in a statement where there is a probability of some event happening. For example, if I have a good guess that the answer to the question “Who is the President?” is John McCain, then this is a statement.
A sentence like that is a statement, but a statement does not have to mean “the answer is John McCain.” A statement can be true or false, and as a statement it is not required that it be true or false. In fact, a statement can be neither true nor false. Our friend Theodor Adorno, a prominent philosopher, said that a statement is a false statement which is either true or false.
A statement is false unless its author knows how to prove false it or can find a way to find the author of the statement. As I said earlier, a statement can be true or false, and Theodor Adorno added that the statement is true is if someone does not know how to prove it false nor can they find a way to prove it true.
This is an important distinction because it tells us that a statement can be both true and false. But it also tells us something that is much more important: a person can know how to prove a statement false or false yet be unable to prove it true. If someone knows the answer to a question but does not know how to prove it false, they may still know the answer to the question, but not necessarily know how to prove it false.
