Affirmative can mean:
- Pertaining to truth
- Pertaining to an assertion
- An answer that shows agreement or acceptance, such as "yes"
- Affirmative (linguistics), a positive (non-negated) sentence or clause
- Affirmative (policy debate), the team which affirms the resolution
- Affirmative action
Famous quotes containing the word affirmative:
“Some rough political choices lie ahead. Should affirmative action be retained? Should preference be given to people on the basis of income rather than race? Should the system be—and can it be—scrapped altogether?”
—David K. Shipler (b. 1942)
“The new statement will comprise the skepticisms, as well as the faiths of society, and out of unbeliefs a creed shall be formed. For, skepticisms are not gratuitous or lawless, but are limitations of the affirmative statement, and the new philosophy must take them in, and make affirmations outside of them, just as much as must include the oldest beliefs.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“I would say that deconstruction is affirmation rather than questioning, in a sense which is not positive: I would distinguish between the positive, or positions, and affirmations. I think that deconstruction is affirmative rather than questioning: this affirmation goes through some radical questioning, but it is not questioning in the field of analysis.”
—Jacques Derrida (b. 1930)