First published in 1940, The Real and the Negative attempts to resolve the outstanding conflicts of human experience. Beginning with the common suggestion that the categories of thought and practice have reached an impasse, it addresses the sceptical claim with a fresh theory of doubt. It then constructs a framework to resolve the age-old conflicts between the categories, based on a fresh interpretation of the law of contradiction. The interpretation is unconventional, and The Real and the Negative emerged in a form that bears no resemblance to any tradition.
As a piece of pure logic, with none of the features of esoteric intuition, poetic vision, or scientific hypothesis, it does not hesitate to draw conclusions. Therefore, on the notions of Divinity and value, it departs from traditional thought. According to its main thesis, human society may be freed through persuasion from the necessity of warfare and suppression, and civilization—which humanity has long aspired to—may be built on its foundation.
From its inception in the critical atmosphere of Oxford, the book took the author nearly two decades to complete.