It gave rise to the distinction between logical truth and factual truth. In the following it will be argued that the recognition of the distinction between logical and factual truth is vital in information system design, yet it is a distinction that is not found in the information system design methodologies. Nor do the vast majority of information system designers recognise the need for any such distinction. Most analytical philosophers would agree that there is a difference between logical and factual truth but how this distinction is to be made is still open to some dispute. The following is one plausible account.
Factual truth is the property of propositions that correspond to real world states of affairs.
Logical truths are the constitutive rules of languages, formal and informal, used to express factual truths. Logical truths are invented, factual truths are discovered. Logical truths are necessarily true, factual truths are contingently true. The negation of a logical truth is a self-contradiction. The negation of a factual truth will be false but it will never be a self-contradiction.